January 24, 2014

Every day the same thing, beautiful skies, nice colours and warm temperatures. January 23, 2014.

         Brent Phillips climbing near the Guide's Notch, January 22, 2014. Darlene Douglas Photo

Rutschblock test up by the Eldorado Cabin, more pictures and notes from a recent trip lower down on page. Thanks to Todd Helliga for submitting the information and photos.

Hey Wayne, the Rutschblock was on east facing slope at appx 2000m elevation, in the area of the summer hike-a-bike from Pearson Basin heading toward Eldorado cabin. Windslab failed and the whole column then collapsed on the facets at the base of the pack and propagated from the edge of our pit as Steve described. There was a large natural avy cycle in the area prior to our arrival last Thursday afternoon, naturals observed on most aspects most elevations going to ground in most instances. Temperatures were warm throughout the trip and whumphing was noted the first two days on flat terrain, we ended up just skinning/skiing mellow terrain as we were all extremely risk averse. The cooling temps Saturday night into Sunday morning tightened things up significantly however and we noticed no whumphing on the skin out on Sunday.

Hope this adds a bit of info for you.

Love your blog, thanks for keeping us updated all the time!

Cheers,

Todd

                       CAC is doing some research, please contribute to this worth while project.

Close to a sunset Thursday Afternoon.

Weather observations for January 24, 2014, taken at 06:00 Hrs.

2240 Meters     +7, Winds were 5-15 KPH from the NNE
2180 Meters     +8, Winds were 5-15 KPH from the WSW
1860 Meters     +8, Winds were 5-15 KPH from the NNE
1835 Meters     +7, Winds were 0-10 KPH from the NNE
1650 Meters     +5, No New Snow, Base 133 cm. Has not snowed since January 12 Th
1550 Meters     +7, No New Snow Base 97 cm
  660 Meters      -3, Valley Temp

More of the same, the entrenched, warm upper level ridge will dominate the pattern through the weekend. Some disagreement in the models but there could be a colder pattern arriving next week. For now the air mass is stable and dry. The large deep low in the Pacific will not affect the high too much early next week. Stratus cloud will likely develop again as the off shore flow may weaken. Confidence is low in the model runs so more news as we get closer!! Freezing level should max out this afternoon at 3500+ meters. Over the weekend the FL should slowly lower to 1600 meters by Monday. By the middle of the week could drop down to 1200 meters.

Much of the stratus layer has dissipated.

The warm high pressure is  massive.

Video Friday:

Seriously iced and rimed haul rope, crazy footage of a sagged out lift: Oregon

Who needs a ski lift when you have the wind, kite-skiing uphill: France

Giant Snowball smashes kid: Not not for the Squeamish; OUCH!!

Avalanche in the Fairgrounds; video report on snowmobile burial last week: Utah Avalanche Center

Snow Talks with Albi Sole: January 23-25, 2014
Great piece on what should be in your pack!!


Articles:

Snow update from Japan: Steep Deep Japan

Conditions in the backcountry near Decker : ACMG Blog

Avalanche kills Swiss skier, injures 2 others in Kashmir: India

Thanks to Steve Reid for connecting the blog to Todd.

As promised here's some photos from my buddies' trip to Eldorado. They dug a few pits in some pretty flat zones (no mention of aspect - elevation the same as Eld. cabin). The first two pics are a Rutschblock done on a 25 deg slope(?), East facing(?) based on how the photo looks. Top slab failed on '6 jumps' and produced the tension crack seen in pic 2, which apparently went around the diameter of the small bowl in the background.

Juneuary weather brings out the Bikini"s.

Prelude to the up coming Australia Day. Will be full beach wear with the expected temps.

                      A recent profile on a steep North facing slope above the Horstman Glacier.

If we are not going to get an ULLR party going perhaps we could do a feature movie in Whistler and have Thor save us from continuous snow in February, March and April from some gigantic low pressure system created by HAARP. Wikipedia definition of the project: HAARP

Boards make great sun blocks. Temperature at 1860 meters at 12:00 January 23, 2014 +5 Max +7

Undisturbed snow on the Horstman Glacier.