YESTERDAY:
Sunrise Tuesday am, 07:55 Hrs. -1 Deg C with a 10-20 KPH ESE wind.FORECAST:
The persistent ridge of high pressure will continue to bring unsettled weather in a Northerly flow aloft today. Mix of mostly sun and some cloud with a temperature inversion this am. The Freezing level will likely climb to around 2400 m this afternoon, dropping back to surface tonight?. Thursday is looking sunnier with some cloud in the mix. Friday is looking unsettled with a mix of sun and cloud. The ridge begins to get pushed to the South East. Low out of the Aleutians will slowly push the high out of our zone Saturday with overcast skies for most of the day. Some much needed snow will begin to fall Saturday evening into Sunday. As of now weak ridging will return Monday with a mix of sun and cloud. Guesstimates: 0 cm until late Saturday afternoon. 8-12 cm by Sunday am, 12-18 cm by Monday am. Numbers will likely change as we get closer.
Deep low in the Gulf of Alaska begins to push into the high Friday with unsettled weather.
AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:
That is a large peace of a slab avalanche.
FROM AVALANCHE CANADA:
Avalanche Summary
Avalanche activity associated with the sustained warm temperatures has been minimal. On Friday and Saturday, small loose wet avalanches were observed out of steep south and east facing terrain.
Explosive control work over the last 4 days produced cornices up to size 2.5 on all aspects. Natural and skier triggered wind slabs size 1.5-2 were reported on Friday.
Snowpack Summary
Higher elevations hold dry snow in the form of lingering wind slabs, mostly on north and east facing slopes. However recent winds have varied, expect winds to have loaded all aspects.
The widespread and robust January 16 melt-freeze crust sits up to 30 cm deep, as high as 2100 m. There have 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. At lower elevations, the previously rain soaked upper snowpack is moist or wet and may be capped with a breakable crust.
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. After showing no reactivity in the peak of the warming event on the weekend, we cautiously reclassify this layer as dormant for now.
INFORMATION & OBSERVATIONS:
08:15 Hrs, not many early birds. -6 Deg C at 660 m. Inversion!!Snow stripped off the ice crust. Will get reloaded!!
FROM SOUTH COAST TOURING:
Large avalanche debris into the Ashlu River. Information and photo from David ReidA100 has a nice class 4 avalanche off SSW slope of Buck Mtn. Avalanche start zone - near summit, runout/terminus was the Ashlu River (does not look like river was dammed temporarily by event but could not 100% confirm).
LOCAL MIN REPORTS:
East Slope of Flute: Jan 25, 2022
VIDEOS:
Weak snow on Mt Wheeler: MTavalanche
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ARTICLES:
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Marker Flexible Touring Goggles up for grabs. Send best avalanche shot to win. wwflann@me.com