March 19, 2014

    First light Tuesday morning.

    Upper layer and lower layer became one in the morning March 18, 2014.

    At times the best visibility was in the centre of the cloud sandwich.

Weather observations for March 19, 2014; taken at 06:00 hrs this am.

2240 meters      -7, Winds were 20-25 KPH from the S
2180 meters      -6, Winds were 35-50 KPH from the S
1860 meters      -6, Winds were 20-35 KPH from the ESE
1835 meters      -5, Winds were 20-35 KPH from the ESE
1650 meters      -4, 3 cm of new snow,  Base 261 cm
1550 meters      -3, 3 cm of new snow,  Base 208 cm
  660 meters       0, Valley Temperature, Max temp yesterday +5.4

Presently we have obscures skies in the alpine, variable visibility and it is snowing less than 1 cm per hour.

Not much avalanche activity in this part of the corridor yesterday, some Size 2 Na activity at the North end of the zone, Darcy-Bralorne.


For the forecast a very weak warm front in a Westerly flow passed through our zone over night with a disappointing 3 cm of new snow. A vigorous cold front in a Northwesterly flow will move in this morning into early Thursday morning. A brief ridge of high pressure is forecasted to begin affecting our zone Thursday into Friday. Another weak frontal band moves through on Saturday, followed by drier weather associated with another ridge for Sunday into Monday. Guesstimates : 10-15 cm by Thursday morning, 2-3 cm by Friday morning. freezing level around 1000 meters for today.

    Cold front and precipitation on its way for today.

    Mid Stratus layer and upper cloud layer were predominate yesterday.

    Frontal band associated with a cold front on the way for today.

    Precipitation certainly stayed north of our zone yesterday.


Land of Thundering Snow: Staying Safe Video

Avalanche observations from Alaska: Chugach National Forest

Recent account of a tragic avalanche incident in France: Pistehors.com

AK Heli-ski Guide buried in Haines avalanche has passed away: Anchorage, Alaska

Interesting banter between the late Frank Baumann and Karl Klassen: Bivouac.com

Avalanche kills two students in Chitral Region: Pakistan

Avalanche fatalities in Canada for 2013\2014 about average compared to years past: Metronews

Snowmobile avalanche in Alaska: You Tube

    Not much to see in the middle of the stratus cloud layer.

    Valley had some of the best visibility with spring skiing conditions.

    Near the end to the day on Blackcomb, still a very grey day.