April 1, 2014

Inbounds avalanche at Sunshine Village puts two in the hospital, story below. Delirium Dive area, run name of  Milky Way was where the avalanche occurred.   File Photo 

    Amazing morning, March 31, 2014.

    Chased by the sluff!!

    There were a few natural soft slabs avalanches observed yesterday morning.

    There are some very ripe cornice noses out there.

    Many loose wet size 1-2 avalanches from March 31, 2014.

    Mostly size 1, but there were certainly some size 2's.

    Late day light.

    Sunset March 31, 2014.



Weather observations for April 1, 2014; taken at 06:00 Hrs.

2240 meters      -9, Winds were 5-10 KPH from the S
2180 meters      -7, Winds were 5-15 KPH from the ESE
1860 meters      -7, Winds were 0-5 KPH from the S
1835 meters      -8, Winds were 5-15 KPH from the NNE
1650 meters      -7, No new snow, Base 285 cm
1550 meters      -5, No new snow, Base 226 cm
  660 meters      -4, Valley Temperature, Max Temp yesterday +10.4

For the forecast the ridge of high pressure will dominate for today with mostly sunny skies, likely see some cloud development this afternoon, with a weak Northeast surface flow. Wednesday  looks to be unsettled as a series of very weak fronts affects our area Thursday through Saturday with light amounts of precipitation and cloudy conditions. Models are in good agreement that an upper level ridge will begin building for Sunday into Monday brining dry conditions. Guesstimates: 5-8 cm by Friday morning, 2-4 cm by Saturday morning, 8-10 cm by Sunday morning.

Presently in the alpine we have clear skies and unlimited visibility.

Avalanche activity in the corridor from yesterday Size 1-2 soft slabs, naturals, skier released, cornice release, snowmobile released, and skier accidental on steep lee terrain. Natural size 1-2 wet loose avalanches were abundant on solar aspects. Many areas with pinwheeling. Northern part of the corridor had up to a size 3 natural avalanche.

    Still some moisture to the South of our zone.

    Some moisture on its way for Thursday.

Thanks to Dylan Falls for this submission:

Hi Wayne,

Great job with your blog, it has become a regular part of my weather/avy research before I head out touring.

I was in the Roe creek area, east of cypress peak on sunday in fairly heavy cloud with 30cm fresh, heavy snow above 1000m and drier snow between 1300-1600.

Mid morning, with the temps climbing and sun working to burn through the cloud we heard a massive natural avalanche rumble off the North face of cypress and come down the moraine to the north east into the roe creek valley. It ran for 15-20 seconds and sounded like it made it to valley bottom. The vis didn't allow us to see anything but having seen a few class 3 slides, this was probably a 4. It was incredible to hear! We also heard a number of smaller slides throughout the rest of the day come off Tricuni's north face.

Cheers,
Dylan





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2 CDOT avalanche mitigation workers hurt after shell explodes in barrel: Loveland Pass, Colo.

Verbier Extreme 2011: Video of Maria Kuzma setting of an avalanche

Two Skiers rescued from an In Bounds avalanche on Milky Way: Delireium Dive, Sunshine Village

Yellowstone avalanche control leaves 3 unexploded howitzer shells: Montana

Officials believe skier's triggered large avalanche on: Mount Washington, New Hampshire

Missoula avalanche center seeks more stable funding: Montana

Avalanche footage, Watterhorn, Grindelwald: Switzerand

Skiers dig four people out of snow: Heros' Knob, Kananaskis Country


Thanks to Jerome for sending in these shots of the 9 Th Hole on Decker, not much intel but looks like a size 2 Sa.

    Decker from yesterday.

                            Decker form yesterday.

    Seracs below Rhodadendrin Mountain.

    Not much surface hoar around yesterday morning but some 2-4 mm plate stellars on the surface.

    Different view looking at Blackcomb.

    Plate stellar's just below tree line.

    Pinwheeling yesterday afternoon.

   Snow on North facing slopes was quite nice.

    Pipeline on Blackcomb is looking filled in.

    Someone airing The Dominator on Blackcomb, March 31, 2014.