February 27, 2017

    AVALANCHE ACTIVTY:

    Missing skier found in an avalanche in Japan. Story in article section.                             Net Pic

    Locally point releases in Lakeside Bowl. There was an avalanche closure on the traverse.
    Some Sz 1 ssls with reverse and cross loading reported in the near country.


    YESTERDAY:

    Cold and windy at the top of Solar Coaster Sunday morning, February 26, 2017.

    A snow flurry up towards Pemberton.

    Snow making taking advantage of the cold temperatures.

    Sunday morning.

    Sunday afternoon.

    Fissile Peak.

    Overlord Glacier.

Weather Observations for February 27, 2017: taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters      -15, Winds were 25-35 KPH S   --Horstman Hut 
2180 meters      -14, Winds were 30-40 KPH S  --Whistler Peak
1860 meters      -13, Winds were 15-25 KPH SE--Rendevous
1835 meters      -12, Winds were 15-25 KPH S  --Roundhouse
1650 meters      -12, 0 cm of new snow, 0 cm in 24 hrs, 250 cm Base, RH 75%  --Pig Alley
1550 meters      -12, 0 cm of new snow, 0 cm in 24 hrs, 175 cm Base, RH 73%  --Catskinner 

  660 meters      -10, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +1.3, trace of Precip recorded yest

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

 FORECAST:

An upper trough in a Northerly flow will bring cool unsettled conditions into Tuesday. The FL will remain below the surface. Mostly cloudy this am with some light flurries possible. May see some breaks near the end of the day. Unsettled Tuesday morning. A frontal system will bring overcast conditions to the area Tuesday afternoon as a series of systems move through our zone into next weekend. The FL will fluctuate from surface to about 800 meters on Wednesday, spiking to 1000 meters on Thursday as an active front passes through. By Friday it should be back to the surface.
Looks like we will get a nice reset by next weekend. Guesstimates: trace-1 cm by Tuesday morning,
8-12 cm by Wednesday morning, 4-6 cm by Thursday morning, 20-40 cm by Friday morning.

    Monday morning.

    Unsettled Monday, with some sunny periods.

    Frontal band Tuesday night into Wednesday.

    More frontal bands Thursday into Friday.

    More snow Thursday into Friday.


   OBSERVATIONS & INFORMATION:

    Blowdown Peak yesterday. Observations below.                                                 Jeff Van Driel Pic

Hi Wango,

Went to make some observations in the Blowdown Peak area today. Gusty moderate to strong NE winds were redistributing surface snow and creating reverse loaded windslabs in the alpine and open areas at treeline. Surface hoar 5-10mm at treeline and in alpine getting blown away in exposed areas, and preserved below 5-10cm of snow in sheltered areas. On polar aspects, the crust under that snow breaks down and turns to facets above 1850m.  Below treeline has a mostly solid crust that is slowly starting to facet buried by 5-10cm. Cornices are beginning to get stripped by the NE winds that are also contributing to reverse loading.

Ridgetop features wumphing and cracking easily within the wind transported snow.

Test pit at 2030m on a ridgetop N aspect with a snowpack of 220cm produced moderate to hard compression test results down 72cm on early February surface hoar size 8-10mm. 

There has been a number of sporadic reports of skier remote  and skier/cornice triggering avalanches failing over 100cm down size 2-3(+) on polar aspects from neighboring terrain within past 96 hours. I suspect the early February surface hoar or December facets to be the culprit. Shallow snowpack areas on all aspects remain suspect. 

Critical decision-making is becoming more complex out there. 

Cheers

Jeff

Brendan Armstrong February 26 at 8:49pm

Had some remotely triggered wind slabs at Echo lake today and lots of signs of natural activity. Be careful out there. Good reminder how different the conditions can be compared to the forecast!

    Cloudier in the morning.

    7 Th Heaven

    GMC Tracked Truck

    Cold dry snow.



ARTICLES:

Missing skier found in an avalanche: Nagano, Japan

Update on the other avalanche in Japan: New Zealand Guide

A morning in the life with RMR Ski Patrol: Revelstoke

Avalanche Canada Foundation fundraiser: March 9, 2017

Melting Sea Ice may be speeding nature's clock in the Arctic: Science Daily