March 26, 2014

    In bounds avalanche at Rosa Khutor caught on a GoPro, footage in articles below in Read More.

    Cornice blast first thing Tuesday morning on Bushwhip.

    Looking warm and grey March 25, 2014.

    At times the visibility was good enough to see across the valley.

    Later in the day the snow accumulation was enough for fresh tracks as the cold front kicked in.



Weather observations for Wednesday: March 26, 2014; taken at 06:00 Hrs this am.

2240 meters      -9, Winds were 20-25 KPH from the S
2180 meters      -8, Winds were 30-45 KPH from the S
1860 meters      -7, Winds were 20-35 KPH from the ESE
1835 meters      -7, Winds were 20-40 KPH from the S
1650 meters      -4, 32 cm of new snow, 35 cm in 24 hours, Base 277 cm
1550 meters      -4, 30 cm of new snow, 32 cm in 24 hours, Base 225 cm
  660 meters     +1, Valley Temperature, 10.6 mm of precip; max temp +3 yest.


For the forecast we can expect showery weather this morning as the trough remains in our area with a Southwesterly flow. A weak dirty ridge will bring unsettled weather later today into Thursday with some flurries possible and sunny skies for Thursday morning. Friday a moist front will move through our area, followed by a cool unstable air mass for Saturday into Sunday. Freezing levels will be as high as 1400 meters on Friday and as low as 1100 meters on Sunday evening. With any luck we could receive up to 30 cm from Friday morning to Sunday night. Guesstimates: trace-1 cm for Thursday morning, 1-3 for Friday morning, 10-12 for Saturday morning. More on amounts tomorrow.

Present conditions in the alpine are scattered clouds with variable visibility and not snowing. Blew the forecasted snow amounts, nice dump last night.

Size 1 soft slab avalanches were easily triggered yesterday afternoon in the ski area.   Northern part of the corridor Sa size 2 yesterday.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

    Satellite image from 14:30 Hrs yesterday afternoon. Thick clouds over our zone!

    NAM is showing a benign day, not much going on for today.

    Potential for some snow over the weekend.


Avalanche victim dies after night in Alpine Igloo: Switzerland

Surface Hoar an issue in the Italian Alps: Earth Science

Alta claims snowboarding lawsuit demeans the constitution: On Going law Suit

Avalanche Information, Education, and Forecasting for West Central Montana:  Missoula

Message from CMH after recent avalanche fatality: On Going Investigation

Sonamarg Road closures affecting business: Northern India

Mr. Magoos, Puckerface, and Developing Expert Intuition in Avalanche Terrain: Blase Reardon

Footage of the Rosa Khutor avalanche, Go Pro footage: Two Fatalities

More information on the incident at Rosa Khutor: Gasex used to control hazard



Hi Wayne,

This is a day or two out of date at this point, but I thought I would pass along some spearhead condition reports from this past Sunday.

We completed a modified version of the spearhead route wit ha ski descent of Fitzsimmons' North Face, then up the east facing Col in the valley and across the lower section of the Overlord glacier to below Fissile . Sunday was a busy day in the spearhead with at least 9 people in 4 parties doing a 1 day version of the traverse. Glacier coverage is pretty good at this point, though still lower than in previous years. Between our group and some parties coming from the Whistler side, at least 14 people skied N. Fitzsimmons on Sunday. 

Anyways, you're welcome to use any of the photos in the linked album for a condition report blog post. 

Best Regards,

-Adrian

https://plus.google.com/photos/117154601701618405419/albums/5994614404586928689?authkey=CJzHuPyphsmr5wE

    Warm air aloft created for some moist snow in the upper elevations yesterday afternoon.

    Watched these two come down DOA, not the best day considering the flat light, and soft slabs.

    Snowing at 16:00 hrs at the Crystal Hut, March 25, 2014.

           Tasso raised nearly $300.00 for Paediatric Cancer Research yesterday, awesome effort!!

    A gaggle of ankle bitters.


Hi Wayne

Sunday March 23 was an awesome day in the Blackcomb backcountry - but no lack of crevasses on the north face of Decker and the south side of the Spearhead glacier. Pick your line carefully?

Cheers, Lawrence McIntosh

PS - thanks for the great avy-blog.

                                                                                                                        Lawrence McIntosh Photo

                                                                                                                        Lawrence McIntosh Photo

                                                                                                                      Lawrence McIntosh Photo