Avalanche Forecast
Kananaskis Country, Alberta Parks
Lots of new snow and good skiing. Tread carefully as the snowpack is complex and human triggered avalanches are still likely in many areas.
Avalanche Problem 1: Loose Dry
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Sluffs may trigger deeper instabilities.
- Avoid areas with overhead hazard.
Avalanche Problem 2: Wind Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Wind slabs are extensive in the alpine down to tree line. These may also step to deeper layers.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Avoid freshly wind loaded features.
- Avoid steep lee and cross-loaded slopes
Avalanche Problem 3: Persistent Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
These are deeply buried (One meter +). Be sure to assess them thoroughly. These can be triggered by loose dry or the wind slabs.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Carefully evaluate terrain features by digging and testing on adjacent, safe slopes.
- Avoid convex rolls at and below treeline where buried surface hoar may be preserved.
- Avoid exposure to overhead avalanche terrain, large avalanches may reach the end of run out zones.
Avalanche Summary
Some loose dry avalanches were noticed starting from the alpine in unskiable terrain. One size 2.5 slab avalanche was noticed in the French creek area on a SE aspect at 2500m.
Snowpack Summary
There is about 40cm of snow from this most recent storm. In the alpine and tree line, this storm snow is reactive to skier traffic as a slab on lee features. In the Commonwealth area, the Jan. 6th surface hoar was found at 2350m was about 100cm down from the top. This layer produced variable results from easy to hard but was very planar in nature. Some reverse loading from recent North winds was noticed; which means that some of the south aspects have more snow than usual.
Weather Forecast
Monday is suppose to bring a mix of sun and cloud with an alpine temperature of -13c. Winds are expected to be light from the West. More snow is forecast for the latter part of the week.
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.
Ice climbers, avoid gullies. Expect sluffing in steeper terrain.