Avalanche Forecast
Kananaskis Country, Alberta Parks
With rapid loading and warm temps forecast, Thursday will be a good day to avoid all avalanche terrain.
Avalanche Problem 1: Persistent Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Be aware of the potential for wide propagations due to the presence of hard windslabs.
Avalanche Problem 2: Loose Wet
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Loose wet slides will likely occur with the rain forecast over the next 24hrs. On Wednesday we saw a few loose wet slides triggerring slabs on underying slopes in alpine areas.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- If triggered the loose wet sluffs may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.
Avalanche Summary
A few loose wet slides up to sz 1 and a few Slab avalanches up to sz 2 were observed. The majority of these slides were failing at treeline and alpine areas, 50-80cm deep and running 100-200m. The heat and solar input seemed to be the big trigger and we suspect that the halloween crust was the main bed surface for most of these avalanches.
Snowpack Summary
Warm temps and strong winds were the primary driver in terms of snowpack change on Wednesday. Freezing levels were up to 2700m and settlement was rapid within the snowpack. Hard windslabs dominate the alpine region that are failing on the Halloween crust down 50-80cm. Most windward slopes are stripped bare by these punishing winds. Thin weak areas surrounding the len's of hard slabs are the areas where it will be easiest to trigger a weakness in the facet layer underlying the Halloween crust. Gullies, ridgelines and lee crossloaded features are all locations where it will be easiest to trigger this problem. Loose wet slides will also be a concern on thursday as more precipitation is expected and a large portion of that will come as rain and wet snow. Thursday will be a good day to avoid avalanche terrain.
Weather Forecast
Warm weather is forecast to continue throughout the night with a freezing level around 3000m. Wet flurries totalling almost 40cm is forecast over the next 24hrs with strong winds. Thursday evening temperatures will then start to cool down. Thursday will be a good day to avoid all avalanche terrain.
Avalanche Forecasts in your Inbox
Avalanche Canada has switched to an RSS feed for its daily forecasts. This is a much more flexible method that allows automatic delivery to your email inbox, or to an RSS reader of your choice.
What are RSS feeds?
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a popular standardized file format allowing up-to-date delivery of web-based content. RSS feeds enable you to receive content updates from websites, delivered to your email through an RSS aggregator (such as blogtrottr.com) or viewed through applications called RSS readers (such as feedly.com).
Set up an RSS feed for your email:
Select a RSS aggregator
- Kananaskis Country, Alberta Parks URL:
http://www.avalanche.ca/api/forecasts/kananaskis.rss - Copy the url and paste it into the appropriate field of your RSS aggregator.
- Fill in your email address.
- Voila! Watch the Avalanche Canada forecast roll into your inbox.
Forecast Disclaimer
Avalanche Canada's Public Avalanche Bulletin, and other information and services provided by Avalanche Canada, are intended for personal and recreational purposes only.
**THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND IN NO EVENT SHALL THE PROVIDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES RESULTING FROM DISCOMFORT, INJURY, OR DEATH, CLAIMS BY THIRD PARTIES OR FOR OTHER SIMILAR COSTS, OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE INFORMATION.**
The user acknowledges that it is impossible to accurately predict natural events such as avalanches in every instance, and uses the data in this bulletin with this always foremost in mind. The accuracy or reliability of the data is not guaranteed or warranted in any way and the Providers disclaim liability of any kind whatsoever, including, without limitation, liability for quality, performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose arising out of the use, or inability to use the data.
Recent windslabs are now beginning to fail down 30-50cm on the Halloween crust. in some areas they are stepping down to the october 17th crust.