4 Dec 2016

December 4, 2016


    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    Bushrat Shoulder--Stiff Slab Saturday Morning.

    Blackcomb Bowl Saturday morning.


    Debris in Blackcomb Bowl.

   Some isolated stiff slabs up to Sz 1.5 reported Saturday with a Sz 2 Sa cornice release.


    YESTERDAYS CONDITIONS:

    Breaks in the cloud Saturday morning, December 3, 2016.


    Nice breaks in the morning.

    Dropping into False Face.

    Companion rescue training Saturday morning.

    Saturday at 11:30.

    Near noon on Saturday.


WEATHER:

Weather Observations for December 4, 2016,: taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters  -12, Winds were   5-20 KPH SW   --Horstman Hut Station
2180 meters  -10, Winds were 15-25 KPH SSW --Whistler Peak
1860 meters  -10, Winds were  5-10 KPH SW    --Rendevous
1835 meters    -9, Winds were 10-20 KPH SW   --Roundhouse
1650 meters    -8, 3 cm of new snow, 3 cm in 24 hrs, 162 cm Base, RH 92%  --Pig Alley
1550 meters    -8, 2 cm of new snow, 2 cm in 24 hrs, 111 cm Base                  --Catskinner 
  660 meters    -1, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +3.6. 1.3 mm of Precip recorded yest

   As of 07:00 Hrs this am we have scattered cloud and unlimited visibility.


For the forecast:

Unsettled this morning in a Westerly flow with the FL in the valley. Possible to see some scattered flurries overnight into Monday, but we will get our share of sunshine eventually. Should see the flow switch to Northwesterly this afternoon. A mix of sun and cloud up to Wednesday with periods of sunshine, with progressively colder temperatures into Tuesday. A weak Arctic outbreak by Monday will usher in the coldest temperatures so far this season, get out the down!! The next deep Pacific Low will bring moderate/heavy snow to the area on Thursday into Friday. Guesstimates: Trace-1 cm by Monday morning.

    Unsettled Sunday with the possibility of some scattered flurries.

    On the edge Monday, high and low very close to the Whistler Zone.



ARTICLES:

10 Commandments of Avalanche Safety: Bruce Temper

Survey on Ski-Tourers habits: Backcountry Skiing Canada

A Huge shift in uphill Access for North American Resorts: SnowBrains



OBSERVATIONS:

From Jeff Van Driel:

Hi Wango,
Skied in the musical bumps today hoping to hide from wind effect with limited success. The recent strong southerly winds pushed well down into treeline creating variable conditions. We found everything from soft to hard slab 30-60cm deep, exposed areas scoured to crust that were surface facetting, pockets of powder in very sheltered areas, and somewhat unpredictable skiing. We avoided any large, steep wind effected slopes. Clearly the lower into treeline we skied and the more sheltered it got, the less the wind effect, but the snowpack starts to dwindle quickly at lower elevations. We chose to exit via Whistler resort rather than singing pass trail. 
No new avalanches observed but we were in simple terrain and had limited obs. 
Skies were broken in am and overcast with light snow in pm. Temps were -5 with moderate southerly winds. 
Cheers

Jeff


    Finding the goods.                                                                                           Jeff Van Driel Image

From Lee Lau on the Duffy Dec 2, 2016--Chief Pascall:

195cms HS at 1850m and -3 deg. Right side up snowpack. 5-10cms of fist (probably some wind transport as it hadn't snowed that much. Top 5-10 was reactive with CTE and CTM results on a N facing 32deg slope resistant planar. Nil reactions below with pronounced MF layer 65cms down.

Ski quality acceptable with supportive stout crust at approx 1550m elevation but not enough to trip you up


Winds light to moderate gusts from SW. Snowing lightly. 


    SATURDAY:

    Scoured above and at the treeline, exposed tracks from a few days ago.

    Winds were high in the Alpine, 50-80 KPH all day. Maximum gusts 100 KPH Friday night.

    Saturday morning.

    There were pockets of nice snow, unbreakable wind slab, and breakable wind slab in the alpine.

    More cloud moved in for the afternoon.

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