December 31, 2017

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    Storm snow skier triggered point releases on N. face Millers Ridge. No skier involvement. Ran on crust. Fairly slow   
    moving cold blower storm snow. Thanks to Toby Salin for this image and intel. Submitted yesterdy.

    Wind slab in the alpine Saturday. Avalanche control produced Sz 1.5-2 Xh, Xl, Xe, Xb. Sc Sz1.

    An avalanche at Cols des Fours, France has killed a ski tourer. Story in article section. Net pic



    YESTERDAY:

    Mostly cloudy in the morning.

    Arctic high to the North.

    Looking over at Mt Cayley.  Up to Sz 2.5 buried crowns observed in the backcountry.

    An awesome day.

    Skiing was nice too!!!

    Low level cloud in the afternoon.

    Stratus layer moving into the valleys.

    Mt Currie in the distance.

    Nice sky at days end!!


Weather Observations for December 31, 2017 taken at 06:00 Hours.

2180 meters      -8, Winds were 20-25 KPH NNW--Whistler Peak
1835 meters      -9, Winds were   5-10 KPH NNE--Roundhouse
1660 meters    -11, trace of new, trace in 24 hrs  Base 193 cm --Pig Alley

  660 meters    -12, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was -3.8, 3.9 mm of precip recorded yest

    As of 07:00 Hrs this am we have scattered cloud and unlimted visibility.

FORECAST:

An uper level ridge with a South/Southwesterly flow aloft will push cloud into our area today.
Unsettled, with the freezing level at surface and inverted temperatures. Monday will also be unsettled with the FL rising to around 1800 meters. The ridge strengthens for Tuesday into Wednesday with mostly sunny skies and the FL spiking to around 2500 meters on Tuesday. Thursday is looking unsettled at this time, with a warm moist front expected for Friday. Get out the sun screen!!
Guesstimates; no precipitation expected until Friday.

    GOES IR image showing cloud in the area this am.

      Cold High, Warm High, Big Low. 

    Sunday, last day of the year.

    Fronts along the coast.

    Monday, welcome to 2018.


    INFORMATION & OBSERVATIONS:

    Wind slabs in the alpine.

    Loose snow sloughs in the treeline.

    Dry light cold snow!!

    Blue Bird in the afternoon.

    Cool sun feature yesterday.                                                                                Dorith Dooley Pic

    Some places are just wind exposed.

    And some places like to make Sastrugi. Click for explanation.

    Amazing what the wind can do.

    Wind pressed snow produced wind slabs Friday night. Some of the debris!!

    Image from Saturday afternoon.

    Big picture Saturday afternoon.


From South Caost Touring:

Ilze Rupners

12 hrs · Whistler, BC

Slow down on the caution corner of slinging pass ! Spectacular crash there today. A guy missed the corner and slid down the cliff band, got stopped by some little trees before the big one. All ended well , ski retrieved but had one hard climb out.

Latest Avalanche Canada MIN reports:
Cayoosh Pass

ARTICLES:

An avalanche has killed a ski tourer near Val d'Isere. France

Backountry avalanche at Bridger Bowl: Montana

Truck caught in avalanche briefly closed Hwy 200: Montana

Update on the avalanche in Zalzburg: Austria

Highway 3 open but avalanche threat persists on local roads: Keremeos