Wayne Flann Avalanche Blog: January 23, 2022

YESTERDAY:

First light Saturday am.

Clouds to the South.

Ice crust exposed on Fissile.

Many areas have the glaze.

Nice cut up powder in Blackcomb Glacier.

The end of the day was pretty special.

Amazing colours.

Spectacular sunset Saturday.

Weather Observations for January 23, 2022 taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters -1, Winds were 15-20 KPH W--Horstman Hut

2180 meters +1, Winds were 40-55 KPH W--Whistler Peak

1860 meters +4, Winds were 5-15 KPH SE--Rendezvous

1835 meters +1, Winds were 15-30 KPH W--Round House

1650 meters +3, 0 cm in 12 Hrs, 0 cm in 24 Hrs. Base 220 cm --Pig Alley

1570 meters. +3, 0 cm in 12 Hrs, 0 cm in 24 Hrs. Base 158 cm. Catskinner

660 meters -3, Valley Temp, Max temp Yesterday was +4.3, 0.0 mm of precip yesterday

As of 07:00 Hrs this am we have broken cloud and unlimited visibility.

FORECAST:

An upper level ridge will bring unsettled weather for this morning, becoming cloudy later this am in a Westerly flow aloft. A shortwave trough may brush our area this afternoon with some flurries as it passes South. The freezing level is hovering in the 2100 m range this am with an inversion. Ridge strengthens for Monday with more sun than cloud, still some cloud in the mix during the day. Tuesday is looking mostly cloudy, with some sunny breaks in the mix. Wednesday is looking mostly sunny at this time. So is Thursday and Friday am. Weak trough moves into the area Friday night with some much needed snow into Saturday & Sunday. Guesstimates: 0-trace by Monday am??, 0 cm until Friday evening.

GOES IR image from this am.

GOES 17 ABI image, 2022/01/23. 05:00 Hrs.

High still the dominant feature, a shortwave trough may brush the area this afternoon.

Westerly flow aloft.

High looking strong for Monday. Slightly cooler temperatures.

High continues to dominate the pattern.

Mix of sun and cloud on Tuesday.

AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

Cornice control on Blackcomb.

Cornice control on Blackcomb Saturday. The aftermath!

Roof avalanche off the Patrol Hut.

Cornice control on Whistler Xc up to Sz 2.5 cornice result.

Wet Loose on Solar aspects.

From the Ryan Area, Images from Al Collis. He felt it ran on the 220120 IFrc. Older activity.

Old Sz 1 2000 m, SW Aspect. Ryan Area. Al Collis Pic

FROM AVALANCHE CANADA:

Avalanche Summary

On Friday, natural and skier triggered wind slabs size 1.5-2 were observed and explosive control work produced size 2 cornices. Small solar triggered loose wet avalanches were observed on steep south facing terrain. On Thursday, a few natural wet loose avalanches size 1-2 were observed at treeline and below during the storm as well as some small loose dry at higher elevations. Ski cutting triggered a couple storm slabs size 1-1.5 and explosives triggered several size 2 storm slabs and cornices. The storm slabs appear to typically be 20-30 cm thick but up to 50 cm in loaded terrain.

Last week, a very large natural avalanche cycle took out mature timber and left mountainous piles of debris down to very low elevations. Check out the insane photos of the size 4 in this MIN from January 15th. Avalanches of this scale wouldn't be surprising during the current warm weather. Parts of the region are currently under a Special Public Avalanche Warning (SPAW). Check out this new blog post for additional information.

Snowpack Summary

At higher elevations, 15-30 cm of recent storm snow has buried the widespread January 16 melt-freeze crust which extends to around 2100 m. There have also been some observations of surface hoar sitting on the crust on polar aspects at treeline and in the alpine north of Pemberton but this does not appear to be widespread. The most recent storm snow has formed reactive wind slabs in exposed high elevation terrain. At lower elevations, the upper snowpack is moist or wet from the recent rain event.

The depth of the early December crust/facet layer is highly variable through the region but appears to be typically down 100-200 cm. Some operators are showing the depth as low as 60 cm in shallow snowpack areas and as deep as 3 m in wind loaded terrain. The weak layer is most prominent between 1700 and 2100 m. The layer has been dormant recently but is a concern for the period of major warming and sun forecast over the weekend. The most likely place to trigger it would be in thin, rocky snowpack areas where it is shallowest.

INFORMATION & OBSERVATIONS:

Awesome light in the morning.