February 2, 2017

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    Wind slabs from reverse loading will be an issue. Locally no new avalanche activity observed.

    YESTERDAY:

    Early Wednesday morning, February 1, 2017.

    Skier cross Wednesday on Blackcomb.

    Carving hard.

    Spindrift below the moon.

    Wednesday morning.

    Winds in the alpine, 35-85 KPH East -Northeast most of the day.

    Ipsoot Wednesday afternoon.

    Spindrift to the South later in the day.

    Sunset was at 17:05.


Weather Observations for February 2, 2017: taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters   -12, Winds were 25-55 KPH E       --Horstman Hut 
2180 meters   -12, Winds were 15-25 KPH ENE  --Whistler Peak
1860 meters   -13, Winds were 10-15 KPH WNW--Rendevous
1835 meters   -14, Winds were   5-20 KPH SSW --Roundhouse
1650 meters   -14, 0 cm of new snow, 0 cm in 24 hrs, 208 cm Base, RH 72%  --Pig Alley
1550 meters   -13, 0 cm of new snow, 0 cm in 24 hrs, 137 cm Base, RH 56%  --Catskinner 

  660 meters   -11, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was -1.1, 0.0 mm of Precip recorded yest

    As of 07:00 Hrs we have clear skies and unlimited visibility.


FORECAST:

High pressure aloft will break down today as a weakening warm front moves into the area later today, the flow will switch from Northerly this morning to Southerly later in the day. The FL will remain below surface for today and into Friday. A weak frontal band will push through Friday morning slowly gaining strength as the day progresses. By Saturday a vigorous impulse will bring heavy snow and the FL will remain near the surface.The storm intensifies for Sunday with heavy snow. We could easily get from 80-180 cm of new snow by Tuesday depending on how the low treats us over the weekend.
Guesstimates: 20-25 cm by Saturday morning, 25-40 cm by Sunday morning, 40-60 cm by Monday morning. Let it snow let it snow let it snow!!!!

    Another clear day, likely some cloud development.

    One more day of nice weather, rex block will deteriorate.

    Front will slowly move into the area early Friday morning, intensifying through the day. 

   Southerly flow for Friday.

   Steady precipitation for Saturday.

    Heavy precipitation for Sunday.

   Steady precipitation for Monday as well.

    OBSERVATIONS & INFORMATION:

    Steep Creek conditions report from Jeff Van Driel below.                                   Jeff Van Driel Pic

Plenty of tracks and slope tests in Steep Creek on Duffey Lake Road today. 

Snowpack

Surface hoar 5-10mm in sheltered locations. East winds redistributing surface snow with reverse loading. Variable surfaces include hardslab, softslab, crust, wind press and low density snow. January 29 surface hoar down 15cm and reactive in snowpack tests. The December facets continue to slowly settle and gain strength. Shallow rocky terrain remains suspect. Test pit at 1975m on a north aspect snow depth 220cm produced CTE 1 sudden planar  down 15cm on surface hoar 4-6mm below a thin crust. 

The main concerns are redistributed snow creating isolated and buried windslab size 1-2 as well as shallow rocky terrain propagating on facets to produce up to size 3.5 avalanches. Low probability, high consequence. 

Weather

Cold arctic outflow persisted today. -12, clear, light easterly winds. Looked like much higher winds in the Joffre group. Snow was pluming off the ridges there all day. No new avalanches observed. 

Ski conditions

The alpine has the above mentioned highly variable snow conditions, whereas sheltered areas treeline and below still hold great skiing. 

Cheers 

Jeff

   Steep Creek area.                                                                                    Jeff Van Driel Pic

Thomas Rozsypalek February 1 at 3:55pm

Today on Cayoosh I saw the exact thing most people including my self go into the mountains to get away from.  The first one wasn't that big of a deal- some guy were down by Birdys cabin shooting their gun off. There are other places to go shoot your gun than a busy area for ski touring.  The second was someone took a crap not even a meter from a skin track and did bury their poop. When you take a shit in the mountains you bury it and no covering it with an inch of snow does not count.  Rant over

   

Erik Mauer February 1 at 1:02pm
Steep skiing up near wedgemount yesterday, lots of touchy 5-10 cm 4F wind slabs out there even in "usually" protected areas that can carry you a long way down.     Near Country Wednesday.                                                                                       Paul Weitz Pic     Stairmaster                                                                                                           Paul Weitz Pic

Wind blown man made snow.

    Wind blown natural snow.

    Some cool snow formations on the glacier.

    Snow makers were loving the temps.


ARTICLES:

List of recent near misses in B.C.: Avalanche Canada

Alberta Government extends avalanche safety funding: Calgary Hearld

Avalanche victims "died of impact" not hypothermia: Italy

Avalanche forecasters keep motorists safe on snowy pass: Snoqualmie Pass

Develop an Avalanche Safety Plan to protect workers in Backcountry areas: OHSInsider

Coal Mine dust lowers spectral reflectance of Arctic Snow by 84 %: Science Daily

Weather making for prime Montana avalanche conditions: Missoula