April 1, 2017

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    Locally, Na wet slabs observed, some Sa Sz 1 on steep terrain in the backcountry, Up to Sz 2.5 Sc.

   Image from Tuesday's event in Body Bag Bowl, looks like a natural cornice release? Tim Smith Pic


   YESTERDAY:

    First light Friday morning, March 31, 2017.

    Some nice pink in the sky.

    Sunrise was at 06:50 hrs.

    Broken cloud in the morning.

    Early morning light.

    Translucent Cornice.

    Awesome light early Friday morning.

    Eventually the clouds moved in from the West.

    Friday morning.

    North facing slopes were skiing well.

    Cool clouds in the morning.

    More clouds moved in later in the afternoon.

    The front was moving up the valley.

    Obscured by days end.

Weather Observations for April 1, 2017 taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters      -4, Winds were 30-40 KPH S  --Horstman Hut 
2180 meters      -5, Winds were 30-40 KPH S  --Whistler Peak
1860 meters      -2, Winds were 15-30 KPH SE--Rendevous
1835 meters      -2, Winds were 10-25 KPH SE--Roundhouse
1650 meters      -1, 17 cm of new snow, 17 cm in 24 hrs, 348 cm Base, RH 96%  --Pig Alley
1550 meters      -1, 19 cm of new snow, 19 cm in 24 hrs, 266 cm Base, RH 97%  --Catskinner 

  660 meters       0, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +9.1, 2.0 mm of Precip recorded yest

   As of 07:00 hrs this am we have obscured skies, variable visibility and it is snowing lightly.



FORECAST:

A cold front has passed through the area with a weak front following in its wake in a Westerly flow aloft. The FL today will max out at around 1600 meters dropping back down to 1200 meters tonight. A weak upper level trough will push through tomorrow with unsettled conditions and the FL hovering just above surface. An upper level ridge builds builds into the area for Monday and Tuesday with mostly unsettled weather but sunny breaks for Monday. A series of wet frontal bands will move back into the area later in the week.
Guesstimates: 8-12 cm by Sunday morning, trace-2 cm by Monday morning, o cm for Tuesday am.

    GOES IR image from this am, nice impulse pf precipitation last night now heading East.

    Weak frontal band will move through today.

    Weak upper level trough for Sunday.

    Flow for Saturday into Sunday.

OBSERVATIONS & INFORMATION:

     Images related to the story below.

    Size 3 debris.

We were hanging right here (where photo was taken) packing up about to move to new zone.  During that my friend went to do his third run on this slope. All day we were hanging back and staying away from cornices.  He was hiking on lee side and thought he was still on rock  but the cornice failed, he fell behind it triggering the face below. We all prepared for rescue as snow came billowing down, it looked as if it was gaining speed. As it came to bottom we could see his air bag deployed and that he was on the surface of the slide, partially buried. Just out of the photos there were some huge chunks of debris and the deepest part of slide path I'd estimate at about 10ft.   I ripped up and parked my sled, I  could see he had his one arm waving and just bit of his head sticking out. I cleared his face, and used my hands to clear snow around his chest making so he could breath. while another friend  assisted and our other friend hung back in case anything else came down. I pulled out my shovel and dug him out.  He sustained no injuries. 

Happened March 30 approx 1 pm, on northwest aspect, the whole face ripped when cornice dropped, also witnessed other huge slides from cornice failures

    Great cloud formations Friday morning.

Matt Gunn April 1 at 12:23am

Decent conditions skiing in the Shutter Glacier on Thursday. Solar aspects were hit hard with lots of evidence of point release and slab avalanches. On Friday solar aspects had a significant breakable crust. It was quite warm Friday and we found the snow heavy up to 2100 m on north facing slopes. On the way to a spring snowpack but not there yet.

    Nice light on the cornices early Friday morning.

    Surface hoar developing in wind protected areas.

    Riming on the rocks.



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