April 2, 2020

    YESTERDAY:

    Mostly cloudy in the early am on Wednesday.

    Alpine in the am.

    Some breaks moved in from the South.

    Top of Glacier Express.

    Whistler is looking very smooth.

    Wednesday April 1, 2020. 13:00 Hrs +2 in the valley. -9 with a 5-15 KPH NNW wind at 1835 m.

    Satellite image from same timeframe as above image.

    Big picture on Wednesday.

    Looking nice to the Northeast.

    Cornices are looking large on Chainsaw Ridge. Blue Bird.

    Looking large on the Monday Chute as well.

    A few sluffs.

    Alpen Glow Wednesday evening.

Weather Observations for April 2, 2020 taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters    -12, Winds were 10-15 KPH S--Horstman Hut

2180 meters    -10, Winds were 15-20 KPH SSW--Whistler Peak

1860 meters    -10, Winds were   5-10 KPH SE --Rendezvous 

1835 meters    -10, Winds were   5-10 KPH ESE--Round House

1650 meters    -11, 0 cm in 12 Hrs, trace in 24 Hrs, Base 284 cm --Pig Alley
1560 meters      -9, 0 mm in 12 Hrs, trace in 24 Hrs, Base 193 cm--Catskinner 

  660 meters      -3, Valley Temp, Max temp Yesterday was +3.9, trace of precip yesterday.

    As of 07:00 Hrs this am we have overcast skies and unlimited visibility.

FORECAST:

A weak upper trough and associated low will spread more cloud into the are as the day progresses in a North Westerly flow aloft. The arctic air will slowly retreat to the east and the freezing level will rise to around 1000 meters dropping back down to surface tonight. Cloud cover during the day with a chance of some flurries this afternoon with an impulse tonight bringing periods of light precipitation into Friday afternoon. Weak trough will keep some cloud in the area Friday night into the weekend with dry unsettled weather. Upper ridge will slowly migrate back into the area with dry unsettled conditions for most of next week. Guesstimates: 4-6 mm by Friday morning, 2-4 mm by Saturday morning, trace-1 mm by Sunday morning.

    GOES IR image from this am.

    This am.

      Low will bring increased clouds as the day progresses with light precipitation by tonight.

    Fronts along the coast.

       Light precipitation in the morning, low moves East with a drying trend Friday night.

      Weakening trough with mostly cloudy skies for Saturday.

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

  An avalanche has buried a skier near Teton Pass, SAR still in recovery mode. Article below. Net Pic

    Using a drone to look for clues on Taylor Mountain avalanche, Teton Pass.         Teton SAR Image

    The avalanche that injured a skier in Colorado. Article below.                  San Miguel SAR Pic

    No new avalanches were observed on Whistler yesterday.

    Some pinwheeling yesterday at lower elevations.

    No new activity in the Weekend Chutes.

    INFORMATION & OBSERVATIONS:

    Edge of Green Lake froze Wednesday morning with -2 Deg C low.

    Fairly thick for an overnight  freeze.


    Opaque

    Re freeze Wednesday night.

    Not many people out and about.

    Green Lake Golf Course

    High in the valley yesterday was +3.9 despite the cold arctic air.

    It looks so darn good. :(



Some Submitted Observations:


   From the Duffey Wednesday:

We made the summit with good travel and a fortunate weather clearing mid afternoon, temps ranging -3 to -10, winds were occasionally light out the north and there was no wind effect observed, but 30-50cm HST at TL and up to 100 cm in high ALP fetch features over the March 26th FC interface. 

Of note was this recent size 2.5 avalanche which failed just below the Cayoosh summit ridge, N Asp and propagated across and into the East Asp bowl which is the ascent route. Obvious rapid loading on facets during the last storm. The debris had about 15 cm of recent snow on it. 

There were widespread loose dry avalanches out of steep Alp terrain to size 1. 

Test profile 2000m, E Asp, CTH (RP) down 35cm, CTH (24) SP down 75cm. 

From the Coquihalla:

We went to Iago on Mon, Mar 30th. Very stormy and snowing heavily the whole day, but mild temperatures. The powder was on the heavier side, but still good for skiing. The snow was slabbing in the wind (about 15 cm of soft slab laying on a supportive snow). Sorry we didn't poke too much in the snow as we did stick to very low angle terrain anyway. We didn't observe any shooting cracks or whoomphs. Sheltered snow in the trees was fantastic!

VIDEOS:

3 Instabilities: Avalanche Guys

Explosive Eruption: Sakurajima Volcano

ARTICLES:

Active search on Taylor for snowboarder buried in avalanche: Teton Pass

Update on the avalanche involvement in Colorado: Dolores County SAR

Body of missing man recovered 47 days after he was buried in an avalanche: Gurez, Kashmir

Backcountry skiers concerned about safety after sudden influx of novices: Colorado

Rethinking outdoor risk taking during Coronavirus: Salt Lake Magazine

Be ready to self rescue in the backcountry: Idaho