November 18, 2017

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    Be aware of  areas with summer firn, there has been a slide triggered on that layer.

     There is a facet crust layer 17-11-09 in the Whistler Area in the Alpine.

Avalanche Travel Advisory for the areas adjoining Whistler Blackcomb as of Friday November 17^th:

Mild temperatures at the mountaintops in the Coast Range Mtns at the beginning of the month  followed by rapid cooling resulted in the formation of the November 2^nd crust. Temperatures plummeted to -20 C from November 3^rd-6^th with a weak layer of facets observed to have formed above the crust. We are now calling this the November 9^th Crust Fact layer since that was when it was buried by new snow.

The storm cycle that arrived over the past weekend deposited a total of 189cm of storm snow by the time it exited our region on Thursday. A widespread natural avalanche cycle occurred on Tuesday night as strong mountaintop winds deposited 86cm in a 24hr period. A size 2.5 natural avalanche was observed to have run in Whistler Bowl with a crown line of at least 1m. The storm snow layers were observed to remain quite touchy on Wednesday, with slab avalanches easily trigger able down to at least the 1700m elevation. The storm snow layers rapidly settled and gain strength over the next 24hrs with little in the way of slab avalanche activity observed with Avalanche control that was carried out on Whistler Mtn on Thursday. Cornices were the only features that were observed to remain easily trigger able yesterday.

Caution is advised when travelling in any wind loaded terrain features and around corniced ridge lines. A cornice fall may have the potential to trigger a deep slab avalanche on the aforementioned buried weakness that are lurking within our snowpack. As always at this time of year, the bond between our early season snowpack and any glaciated areas or summer firn remains suspect.

Remember that early season conditions persist with many rocky hazards lurking beneath the storm snow in off piste terrain.

Whistler Blackcomb Snow Safety

     A man was killed in an avalanche while plowing a road in Austria. Story in article sec.   Net Pic

    An avalanche in Afghanistan has killed 10 people, story below.                                        Net Pic

    YESTERDAY:

    Unsettled early Friday morning.

    Dry knee deep powder.

    Hiking for the goods. Pay attention to closures.


FORECAST:


The next frontal band is moving our way with mostly cloudy skies in a Southwesterly flow aloft. A wet cold front will push through Saturday night into Sunday with a freezing level hovering in the 1000 meter range. The cold front should pass through sometime Sunday night with unsettled weather expected for Monday. A warm wet system is expected later Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, more on that as we get closer. Guesstimates: 10-20 cm by Sunday morning, 30-50 cm by Monday morning, 1-2 cm by Tuesday morning.

    IR image for this am.

    Cold front for Saturday night.

    Heavy snow Sunday morning.

    Unsettled on Monday.

    Warm wet front on Tuesday.

    Flow into next week.


Weather Observations for November 18, 2017 taken at 06:00 Hours.

2180 meters    -6, Winds were 45-65 KPH S --Whistler Peak
1835 meters    -4, Winds were 15-40 KPH S --Roundhouse
1660 meters    -2, 1 cm of new, Base168 cm --Pig Alley

  660 meters     0, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +2.9, 5.9 mm of Precip recorded yest

    INFORMATION & OBSERVATIONS:

    Be very wary of tree wells, cliffs and early season hazards.

    It became cloudier as the day progressed.



ARTICLES:

Avalanche kills snow removal worker in Vararlberg: Austria

Snow avalanche kills 10 in Kumar: Afghanistan

Forecasters promote avalanche safety awareness to kick off season: Coast Mountain News

Need to translate but interesting-Avalanche in the Val deth Joeu: Spain

Search resumes on Saturday for two missing snowboarders: Mt Baker