January 14, 2016

    Large avalanche in France buries school group, story below.                                               Net Pic

    Early Wednesday morning,  January 13, 2016--obscured skies.

    Unsettled weather moved in as the front moved East fairly quickly.

    Awesome morning with periods of great visibility and nice snow conditions.

   South side trees with ankle deep powder, knee deep powder in protected lee slopes.

    Size 1 soft slab avalanches in the morning from ski cuts and explosives during AC.  Some Sz 2.

    Looks like some Sa or Sc on upper Disease Ridge. One size 2 went into a terrain trap.

    CARDA exercise on Blackcomb yesterday.

       There were some keen powder hounds yesterday.

    Just before sunset.

    Last light, thick moist stratus layer above the valley.

    Below the moist stratus layer at days end. Light rain in the valley.


Weather Observations for January 14, 2016: taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters    -8, Winds were 25-30 KPH S        --Horstman Hut Station
2180 meters    -8, Winds were 25-30 KPH SSW  --Whistler Peak
1860 meters    -6, Winds were 10-15  KPH ESE  --Rendevous
1835 meters    -5, Winds were 10-25 KPH SW    --Roundhouse
1650 meters    -4, 1 cm of new snow, 1 cm in 24 hrs, 185 cm Base, RH 96%  --Pig Alley
1550 meters    -5, 1 cm of new snow, 1 cm in 24 hrs, 140 cm Base        --Catskinner 

  660 meters     0, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +2.4. 7.7 mm of Precip recorded

Avalanche control yesterday produced numerous Sz1 ssls with Xe/Sc. Isolated Sz2 ssls with Xe.
Sa ? Sz2 in near country.

   As of 07:00 Hrs this am at 1835 M we have overcast skies and unlimited visibility, snowing lightly.


For the forecast, unsettled conditions for today as a weak upper level ridge brings unsettled conditions to the area with the freezing level just above the valley floor dropping to surface by this evening. Flurries can be expected in the mix. The ridge strengthens for Friday morning with sunny skies before the next weak Pacific front spreads clouds to the area by Friday evening, the FL will remain close to the valley floor. Saturday will be overcast with light/moderate snowfall and the FL will likely rise to 1100 meters by the afternoon. Sunday is also overcast with some light/moderate snowfall through out the day and a similar FL. The brunt of the fronts will be heading South of our zone but at least some snow is coming our way!! Guesstimates: 1-3 cm by Saturday morning, 10-15 cm by Sunday morning, 15-20 cm by Monday morning. Saturday is looking particularly windy.

    Some cloud today but a generally dry air mass.

    Unsettled conditions for today.

    High pressure builds for Friday morning.

    System moving in for Saturday.

    Precipitation for Saturday and Sunday




ARTICLES:

Alps avalanche kills two French Children and a Ukranian Tourist: France

Another article on the 20 person burial in France: Probing Works

Skiers pulled from St Regis Basin Avalanche: Idaho

Pieps Micro for Skimo Racers: Backcountry Skiing Blog

Large avalanche slides down steep rocky slope: Buffalo Pass, CO

Glueless Climbing Skins: Pistehors.com

    System went south yesterday morning.

   The big picture is not looking that hope full for lots of snow on the weekend.

    There was some wind pressed snow on some aspects yesterday.

    Size 1's out of Lakeside from explosives control.

    Some releases likely from surface hoar around the rocks. Great turns in Lakeside Bowl.

    Always a great sign when the snow guns are buried under natural snow.

    Freestyle competition in the Black Park.