Kananaskis

Its hard to not talk about the cold these days. Keep trips short and carry extra emergency gear and warm clothing. If you can tolerate the cold, you'll be rewarded with good skiing and great views.

Have you ever seen the This Hour Has 22 Minutes skit about the forecast and there's always a carrot at the end(check it out if you haven't)? That's kind of what's happening now with this cold weather. Tonight will be another -30 night with a daytime high of -15. Beyond that its expected to gradually warm up...sure. Tomorrow will also have light winds that will sting a bit with the wind chill. No snow is expected.

A few loose dry avalanches were noted today. Many of them travelled far and fast. So far they are limited to very steep terrain.

Lots of surface faceting out there. The top 20cm is cold and grabby, but loose with few slab properties. A profile today had sub-surface temps that are still relatively warm, which means limited mid pack faceting. The Jan 29 interface is down about 50cm with a hint of faceting above it. You'll know it when you find it, it is very, very solid. Our profile had a few weaknesses show up, but generally it was well bonded and solid. So far the cold has spared our good snowpack on the west side of the road.  

• Pay attention to isolated alpine features as well as cross-loaded features at treeline.
• Be careful with wind slabs, especially in steep, unsupported and/or convex terrain features.