January 15, 2017

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    Lucky skier after being ejected onto the road, Silverton C0, story below.                        Net Pic

    Locally no new avalanche activity was observed!!


   YESTERDAY:

    Saturday January 14, 2017--Clouds moved in the AM.

    Looking at Cayley and Pyroclastic Peak.

    Saturday morning.

    Castle Towers in the centre of frame.

    Great day in the terrain park.

    Awesome groomers on Saturday.

    Very cool sky for most of the day.

    Sunset was officially at 16:37.

Weather Observations for January 15, 2017: taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters   -5, Winds were 20-35 KPH SSW--Horstman Hut 
2180 meters   -6, Winds were 20-35 KPH SSW--Whistler Peak
1860 meters   -3, Winds were 10-15 KPH SE    --Rendevous
1835 meters   -2, Winds were 15-25 KPH SE    --Roundhouse
1650 meters   -2, 0 cm of new snow, 0 cm in 24 hrs, 178 cm Base, RH 65%  --Pig Alley
1550 meters   -2, 0 cm of new snow, 0 cm in 24 hrs,   98 cm Base, RH 52%  --Catskinner 

  660 meters   -6, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was -3.3, 0.0 mm of Precip recorded yest

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

FORECAST:

An upper ridge will continue to bring cool dry weather for today with some cloud development in a Northwest Flow Aloft. FL could climb to 1400 m today. A warm front will reach our zone later today with light snow possible by tonight with the freezing level hovering in the 1000 meter range in a Southerly Flow. Several fronts will bring wet, warm, and windy weather to the area Tuesday through Thursday. The FL during that period will fluctuate from 1000-1700 meters. By Thursday an upper trough will develop off the coast with unsettled weather possible for the weekend. Still a chance of a significant atmospheric river, but at this time the jet stream may be just South of our zone, that could change. Guesstimates: Trace -2 cm by Monday am, 15-30+ by Tuesday morning, 25-50+ cm by Wednesday morning, 20-35 cm by Thursday morning.

   Last nice day for a while!! Stormy for the next 3 days. High winds and periods of heavy snow fall.

   Warm front for early Monday morning.

    Looking good for Tuesday except its the warmest day, with the possibility of a lot of precipitation.

   Warming up on Tuesday.

   Wednesday could also produce significnt snow fall depending on the atmospheric river.

   By Thursday morning the jet stream moves back to Northern California and an upper trough moves in.

ARTICLES:

Avalanche Canada has a warning for back country adventurers: News 1130

Avalanche injures Steamboat Springs Search & Rescue Volunteer during Mission: Colorado

Highway 12 closes due to avalanche threat: Montana

Skier Rescued after triggering an Avalanche: Silverton, CO

Memories of fatal 97 avalanche still fresh: Idaho Press

Famous Swiss Ski Race cancelled because of too much snow: Wengen


OBSERVATIONS & INFORMATION:
   

Jill Dunnigan January 14 at 8:15am
Looking for something for your teenagers to do on the Pro-D Day this Monday? Our next Extremely Canadian Youth Big Mountain Awareness Camp at Whistler Blackcomb is on Monday, January 16. Designed for youth aged 13-18, the one day course, developed by Mitchell Sulkers and Keith Reid, will serve to enhance awareness of hazards and provide tools to help young skiers and boarders effectively deal with many of the unforeseen challenges of such a large and diverse mountain resort. Cost: $96 CDN plus tax including lunch voucher. Mitchell Sulkers will be teaching this course. http://www.extremelycanadian.com/extremely-canadian--big-mountain-awareness.html Kaston Leung January 14 at 10:26pm Finally left the north shore and went up Cayoosh via the Armchair on a beautiful bluebird day. After reading reports of wind hammered snow seemingly everywhere on the south coast and howling winds on the hwy around Squamish on the drive up, we were happily surprised to find zero wind-affected snow below 2300m. Stiff spots we did encounter above that were unreactive. Very firm snow in the last 100m to the summit. We bootpacked it for the views but the riding was really not worth it. I recommend an ice axe if you want to summit.

    A teaching moment!!

   Many lenticulars!!

   When it warms up next week these could become a problem if your in the trees.

    Blackcomb Bowl.