May 9, 2017

   AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    There are lots of rocks and trees in the debris from last Thursday's avalanche in Lakeside Traverse.

    No new avalanche activity yesterday.


   YESTERDAY:

    Upload Monday May 8, 2017. Still skiing to the valley!!

    High stratus cloud layer.

    The top 200 meters of 7 Th Heaven was in the layer most of the day.

    Monday morning.

    Looking South.

    Looking North.

   It did begin to change at around 17:00 Hrs.


Weather Observations for May 9, 2017 taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters      -1, Winds were 5-10 KPH SW --Horstman Hut 
1860 meters      -2, Winds were 5-10 KPH ESE--Rendevous
1550 meters      -1, 0 cm of new snow, 0 cm in 24 hrs, 227 cm Base, RH 93%  --Catskinner 

  660 meters       0, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +13.3, 0.0 mm of Precip recorded yest

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


FORECAST:

A weak warm upper level ridge will bring sunny skies to the area this morning in a Westerly flow aloft. The FL will rise to 2400 meters today and we will see some cloud development later this morning. Unsettled weather will continue into Wednesday, then a large upper low moves closer to the coast, bringing overcast conditions by the evening and rain into Thursday. The FL during this period will spike on Wednesday afternoon to 2600+ meters and drop to as low as 1400 meters Thursday night. We will see some snow by Friday morning but the majority of the precipitation will be rain below 2000 meters. The upper low will move through our zone over the weekend with cool showery weather.
Guesstimates: trace by Wednesday morning, 10-15 mm by Thursday morning, 10-15 mm by Friday morning with 4-6 cm of snow at 1550 meters.

    GOES IR image from this am.

   Weak high pressure for today, will bring dry warm conditions with some cloud.

    Westerly flow aloft for today.

    Wednesday into Thursday the Low will be sending precip our way by Wednesday night.

    Low moves closer to the coast on Thursday with moderate/heavy precip in the am.

    Cool showery weather for the weekend. We should see periods of unsettled weather as well.


   OBSERVATIONS & INFORMATION:

Cloudburst

By Dan Cudlip

I've always heard about Cloudburst, but I always figured it was second rate when it came to ski lines. I was wrong. The terrain is sweet, the views are quite frankly ridiculous, and we boshed it out in 5 hours up 2 hours down, with nothing too strenuous in terms of route finding.

Currently you can drive to about 500m on the chance creek FSR, but after a short section of snow there is then a fairly long section of dirt.

After the first clear cut between 800-900m snow depth appears to increase rapidly, and I suspect this will still be a worth three quarter day spring mission for quite some time.

Put it on your list. It's a banger.

    Snow flurry Monday morning.

    There was a brief sucker hole.

    Into the Stratus Layer.

    At times it was very dark.

    Sunrise was at 05:34 Hrs this morning.



ARTICLES:

Avalanche, mudslides force Duffey lake road closures: Pique

Spring Avalanche Statement from just South of the boarder: NAC

Some South American Countries are reshaping Guiding and Avalanche Safety: Backcountry Magazine

Avalanche Bulletin for Jasper National Park: May 9, 2017

Canada Parks are free in 2017: Backcountry Canada

Avalanche Danger Rating 3---More dangerous than you might think: WePowder