February 12, 2018

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    Avalanche from Saturday, West Lion. Info below.                                             Mark Olstroom Pic

    Another picture of the avalanche in the Spearhead from Saturday.   Ski cut        John Furneaux Pic

    Picture from MIN report lower on this page. Cayoosh.                                         BS Trainor Pic

                      Avalanche in Million Dollar Couloir, info below.         Oscar Pottinger Pic

    Locally, avalanche control produced a couple of Sz 2 cornice drops.  1 Sz 2 Loose wet Na reported.


    YESTERDAY:

    Finger nail moon. Sunrise was at 07:30 Hrs Sunday morning.

    Valley cloud dissipated in the am. Temps dropped from -9 to -15 from 05:30-17:30 at 2240 meters.

    Bluebird!!

    Alpin glow Sunday evening, 40-65 KPH from the NNW, -14 Deg C.

    Busy day in the Town centre.

    Sunset was at 17:22 Hrs on Sunday.

    Sunday afternoon.

    Big picture Sunday.

Weather Observations for February 12, 2018  taken at 06:00 Hours.

2180 meters   -15, Winds were 35-40 KPH NNW--Whistler Peak
1835 meters     -9, Winds were 10-20 KPH NNE --Roundhouse
1660 meters   -12, 0 cm of new, 0 cm in 24 hrs  Base 281 cm --Pig Alley

  660 meters     -9, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +2.7, 0.0 mm of precip recorded yest

As of 06:00 Hrs the wind chill at the peak of Whistler was -27 when calculated with 35 KPH. Dress warm if your heading that way early this am.

FORECAST:

Clear skies today with cold temperatures in a Northerly flow aloft.  The freezing level may rise to 1000 meters with day time heating. Tuesday will see a weak front push in with overcast weather by the afternoon and snow by Tuesday night. The warm high will begin to influence our zone. The ridge regains some ground on Wednesday with unsettled weather in the morning with clearing by Wednesday afternoon. A series of frontal bands will bring some snow for Thursday into the weekend.
Guesstimates: could see 8-12 cm by Wednesday morning, possibly more depending on the track of the cold front. trace-2 cm by Thursday morning,  Friday and Saturday have the potential to deliver a new surface.

    GOES IR image from this am.

    Surface high will be dominant today.

    Clear this am.

    Sunny Skies.

    Clear on the coast today.

    Clouds will move in during the am.

    Snow for Tuesday night.

    INFORMATION & OBSERVATIONS:

    Spindrift in the alpine, strong Northerly winds. By 18:30 hrs yesterday it was -16 with 45-90 KPH.

    Not a cloud to be seen.

       DOA                                                                                                               Chris Britt Pic

     Harnessing the wind!!

    Green Lake Teeth.

    Very cool ice formations.

Recent Avalanche Canada MIN Reports:

Spearhead Glacier Avalanche

Cayoosh

Marriott Basin

Cayoosh--Lazy Boy


From South Coast Touring:

Mark Olsthoorn

Size ~2 slide with long runout on the backside of the West Lion yesterday, likely due to the collapse of a cornice from the summit. Heard a loud boom on the hike around 12:30. Photos at 3:30pm.

    West Lion avalanche.                                                                                   Mark Olsthroom Pic

Eric Carter February 11 at 7:22pm

Great conditions on the Spearhead today. Travel was fast and ski quality was generally good! Soft up high but nice melt-freeze crust around treeline. A few noticeable pockets of wind-slab but we didn't see any activity. Curtain Glacier on MacBeth skied very nicely. Banana Chute on Fissile was firm. A bit colder than we expected and pretty windy at times but nice to see the sun!

ARTICLES:

How a group of CEGEP students rescued skiers swept away by a Gaspe Avalanche: Quebec

Avalanche safety courses gaining popularity: Valemount

Stand up for Parks: CPAWS