Avalanche Forecast
Kananaskis Country, Alberta Parks
A big change in the weather is coming. Temperatures will be near the freezing mark over the next few days. Triggering may be more easy as the snowpack adjusts to this warming.
Avalanche Problem 1: Loose Dry
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Be cautious of sluffing in steep terrain.
- Minimize exposure to steep, sun exposed slopes when the solar radiation is strong.
Avalanche Problem 2: Wind Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Wind slab conditions are highly variable, including hard slabs, soft slabs and buried slabs. Watch for human-triggerable slabs in steep terrain on all aspects, and take the time to evaluate localized conditions.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
Avalanche Summary
Loose dry avalanches up to size 2.0 have been occurring in steep terrain on all aspects at all elevations in the past several days, but there was less activity today. No slab activity noted today, but a few have occurred in the past few days.
Snowpack Summary
Another cold night led to surface facetting. Previous storm snow is settling slowly. Alpine areas have a wide variety of wind slab conditions, including bullet-proof hard slab, recently formed soft slabs and buried wind slabs. At Treeline elevations expect isolated slabs, primarily around ridge-crests. Forecasters continue to track the Dec 15th surface hoar, but due to the lack of an overlying slab this layer has not been overly reactive.....yet. In the lower 1/3 of the snowpack the November and October rain crusts are facetting and remain on the radar for future potential avalanche problems.
Weather Forecast
Finally the warm air seems to be on the way. Tuesday will be mainly cloudy with no precipitation expected. Alpine temperature will reach a high of 0 C, with ridge top winds near 15 km/h from the West. Freezing levels will climb to near 1900m by mid-week.
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Be cautious in steeper terrain. Sluffs are running far and fast, and may be more likely to be triggered from steep shallow solar aspects when the rocks heat up.