Avalanche Forecast
Kananaskis Country, Alberta Parks
Despite a not-so-encouraging forecast, there is some good skiing to be had. Conservative terrain at treeline seems to be the place to go.
Avalanche Problem 1: Wind Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
- Avoid steep lee and cross-loaded slopes
Avalanche Problem 2: Persistent Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
As snow load increases, the "triggerability" of this layer will go up.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Watch for whumpfing, hollow sounds, and shooting cracks.
- 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.
Avalanche Summary
Poor visibility today but we did see a couple of smaller avalanches from the previous cycle. The most notable was an older sz2 that likely ran on the Dec15 layer.
Snowpack Summary
Flurries continued overnight and throughout today. Amounts added up to about 5cm, bit with settlement the overall storm totals haven't changed much. 20cm seems to be the average for overall new snow at treeline. In today's area (Purple Knob area) the Jan 6th surface hoar was down 65 and much more reactive in tests compared to the last few days. In tests, it failed with only moderate pressure(CTM12, SP). We didn't travel into the alpine today, but believe there is ongoing wind slab development on N to E aspects. As for the other trouble layers, we didn't see any results on them today, but they are still concerning.
Weather Forecast
Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries tomorrow. High temp of -7. Winds increasing slightly tomorrow, west at 40km/hr.
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These are multiple slabs that are laminated together. Stepping down to deeper instabilities is likely.