A different view of Blackcomb, taken from Rainbow Mountain December 8, 2012.
As of 06:00 hrs the temperature at 2260 meters was -9, winds were 25-45 KPH from the S. At 1650 meters the temperature was -8, 1 cm recorded there in the past 24 hours. . In the valley it is -3.
Cloudy today with light snow in the forecast. (2-4 cm) Freezing levels will start to climb back up to 900 meters by this evening. Tomorrow the dirty ridge will give us mostly cloudy skies with some sunny breaks. The trend is for the freezing level to rise to about 1100 meters by Monday morning. Another small front will bring snow to the region Monday evening into early Tuesday morning with 3-6 cm and light snowfall for Tuesday.
For the latest Local Avalanche Advisory: Updated Advisory
Avalanche warning issued for French Alps: High Hazard
Avalanche courses designed for snowmobilers: CAA
From MEC, Making Decisions in Avalanche Terrain: Colin Zacharias
Burnese Mountain dog rescued out of suicide gully: North Shore search and rescue
Best Avalanche Beacon Review: Outdoor Gear Lab
Update on Tignes avalanche December 5, 2012 : =There has been a tragic development.
Chloe, the 20-year-old trainee ski instructor, who was taken by the Toviere Avalanche in Tignes yesterday morning, died at the University Hospital of Grenoble this afternoon 6-12-2012
Thanks to Tony Sittlinger for this photo of SBM a slide path above the traverse to the Blackcomb Glacier East Col. This natural avalanche occurred during the storm Tuesday or Wednesday.
Satellite photo from around noon Saturday. Lucky to be as sunny as it was in the morning.
From the ACMG blog:
Friday, December 7, 2012
[MCR] Coast Mountains, Cerise Creek
I skied in the Cerise Creek drainage for the past couple of days.
The trail is skiable from the parking lot. At the top of the cut block the old Snow Stake read 140cm. The route to the Anniversary Gl involves a little creativity by the creek but is simple. The snow level is flush with the cabin's porch. We had 30-40 cm ski penetration most of the way up. At the cabin Foot Penetration was waist deep. We got 20cm new snow last night.
There was evidence of mid storm slab avalanche activity off Joffre to Sz 2.5-3 at 2000 m.
Ski cutting made only sluffs. A quick pit at about 1900m on a NE aspect showed 60cm Fist density snow above 4 Finger+ density snow.
We got no compression test result other than mid storm snow collapses. Probing showed about 2m snow depth.
We skied a couple of reasonably conservative lines and had face shots all the way.
Dave Sarkany
DSK Guiding
