3 Jan 2015

January 3, 2015

    Early, January 2, 2015. Flurries in the morning!!

    Some breaks with strong winds, later in the morning.

    Valley perspective at around noon yesterday.


   A fairly nice day if you were not in the clag.



Weather observations for January 3, 2015, taken at 06:00 Hours this Am.

2240 meters        -10, Winds were 20-30 KPH from the S
2180 meters        -10, Winds were 30-40 KPH from the SSW
1860 meters        -8, Winds were 15-25KPH from the E
1835 meters        -6, Winds were 15-30KPH from the SSW
1650 meters        -8, No new new snow, Base 115 cm, Trace in 24 hours
1550 meters        -8, No new new snow, Base 80 cm, Trace in 24 hours, Relative Humidity 93%.
  660 meters        -2, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yest +0.3.


   As of 07:00 Hrs this am we have broken skies and unlimited visibility.

For the forecast, an upper ridge off the coast will bring mostly cloudy, dry weather for today as the Northwest flow aloft continues. The approaching warm front will arrive later today\evening bringing snow to the area into Sunday. Freezing levels will fluctuate from the valley to 900 meters for today into Monday evening before we see a significant shift with the FL reaching 2600 meters on Tuesday. Luckily during that time period there will be light precipitation. Some uncertainty as to the mid week forecast. Guesstimates: 6-8 cm by Sunday Morning, 15-20 cm by Monday morning, 8-10 cm by Tuesday morning. A bit optimistic but perhaps it will go that way.


    Satellite image from yesterday at noon.

    Potential for some good precipitation on its way for tomorrow.

    Front moving down the coast for today.

    Tomorrow could bring some significant snow amounts to the area.



ARTICLES:

Special Public Avalanche warning issued to January 4, 2014: Avalanche Canada

Two skiers killed by Avalanches over New Year: Pistehors.com

On Pagers: Oplopanax Horridus

Vancouver Island Avalanche Bulletin: VAIC





    At times the visibility in 7 Th Heaven was challenging.

    Flat light but better than being in a ping pong ball.

    Sc on December 29, 2014.                                                                                     Kurt Muller Photo

Hi Wayne,
Here are the picture of the slide I released N of Circle? lake. The slopes around the lake were all wind swept and we had a hard time finding good pow. We had skinned from the lake up the ridge S of the Spearhead glacier. Lucky for me, I saw a gully that looked good. Had I skied straight down as my companions suggested, I would most likely been hit by the debris of the cornice that I released. It did not look like a cornice from the top. I ski cut what looked like a thin slab and it just cracked 2 feet above me. This was a S facing slope that had a wind loaded pocket.
The maximum height of the fracture line was about 2m. Luckily I skied out in the direction of the thin end of the wedge.
This happened around 11:30 am.

Thanks for the info Kurt. While I am laid up please send me pictures of any activity, good scenery shots, or anything of interest. It would be much appreciated. Cheers Wayne

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