Avalanche Forecast
Kananaskis Country, Alberta Parks
Strong winds have punished the snowpack in most open areas. Watch for pockets of preserved surface hoar at treeline and below!
Avalanche Problem 1: Wind Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Avoid steep lee and cross-loaded slopes
- Avoid freshly wind loaded features.
Avalanche Problem 2: Persistent Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Up to treeline being found especially in sheltered areas.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Avoid convex rolls at and below treeline where buried surface hoar may be preserved.
Avalanche Problem 3: Persistent Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
The recent load may begin to make the December 15th interface more reactive. This layer has turned into a 5-10cm thick facet layer and isolated surface hoar at treeline elevations.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Avoid open slopes and convex rolls at treeline where buried surface hoar may be preserved.
- Dig down to find and test weak layers before committing to a line.
- Avoid unsupported slopes.
Avalanche Summary
A few new size two avalanches were observed in the past 24hrs. These avalanches were seen in steeper treeline areas failing down 30-40cm. Explosives results produced a few smaller avalanches and one larger treeline avalanche that crossed the smith dorrien highway.
Snowpack Summary
20cm of recent snow over the past 48hrs with strong winds. Alpine terrain has definetly been ravenged by the winds with some windward slopes stripped bare and hard slabs on more N and E aspects. At treeline there are two surface hoar layers down 30cm (Jan 6th) and down 50cm (Dec 15th) that have slowly becoming more reactive over the past few days. Steeper features and unsupported roles should be treated with caution, especially in un-skied terrain. No recent activity on the November crusts but we have not let these weaknesses fall from our thoughts. Weak facets can be found surrounding these layers which indicates that these is potential for a slide to step down to one of these layers.
Weather Forecast
A trace of new snow may fall overnight with temperatures on Saturday around -11C in the Alpine. Winds will continue to be moderate out of the SW.
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.
Strong winds and warm temps have combined to build widespread windslabs in the alpine & open treeline areas. These slabs are overlying a melt freeze crust on solar aspects and surface hoar at treeline and below.