January 07, 2008
Whistler Avalanche conditions
January 07, 2008
Alpine: Moderate
Treeline: Moderate
Below Treeline: Low
Travel Advisory: We are finally seeing a brief break today following a series of intense systems that moved through our area last week bringing with them heavy precipitation and strong winds. 2cm fell overnight bringing the storm snow total to 73cm, which was accompanied with strong SE winds. There has been significant loading into lee alpine and treeline terrain. Expect to find areas with large deposits of snow and many areas scoured down to the early december crust. Watch for shallow areas where there is significant potential for skiers to trigger a deep instabilities the snowpack.
Avalanche Activity: Explosive testing carried out yesterday produced minimal results with only one size two occuring on an east aspect. The most significant result was a size three skier accidental on a NE aspect post explosive testing and ski cutting. The crown was 3.5 meters deep and 75 meters wide and is suspected to have run on the crust and possibly stepped down to glacial ice. You can expect to see evidence of some natural activity in the alpine that occured during Saturday night's storm and is now being reloaded.
Snowpack: The overnight winds were light allowing for loose snow to be deposited on a variety of storm snow surfaces that were created by the strong winds that gusted throughout the past few days. The December 4th facet crystal and raincrust weakness is getting buried deeper, but the crust can still be found on the surface in some wind affected terrain. Although this buried weakness has gradually been gaining strength, we did see significant results on this layer yesterday in specific terrain features. Shallow rocky terrain is facetted as well, and failures there could propagate into the deeper instabilities as well.
Weather: Unsettled weather today with a trace to two centimeters expected. The next frontal system is expected to arrive this evening bringing heavy precipitation and strong winds overnight. The winds should taper tommorrow morning with snowfall accumulations of ten to fifteen centimeters by the afternoon.
January 07, 2008
Alpine: Moderate
Treeline: Moderate
Below Treeline: Low
Travel Advisory: We are finally seeing a brief break today following a series of intense systems that moved through our area last week bringing with them heavy precipitation and strong winds. 2cm fell overnight bringing the storm snow total to 73cm, which was accompanied with strong SE winds. There has been significant loading into lee alpine and treeline terrain. Expect to find areas with large deposits of snow and many areas scoured down to the early december crust. Watch for shallow areas where there is significant potential for skiers to trigger a deep instabilities the snowpack.
Avalanche Activity: Explosive testing carried out yesterday produced minimal results with only one size two occuring on an east aspect. The most significant result was a size three skier accidental on a NE aspect post explosive testing and ski cutting. The crown was 3.5 meters deep and 75 meters wide and is suspected to have run on the crust and possibly stepped down to glacial ice. You can expect to see evidence of some natural activity in the alpine that occured during Saturday night's storm and is now being reloaded.
Snowpack: The overnight winds were light allowing for loose snow to be deposited on a variety of storm snow surfaces that were created by the strong winds that gusted throughout the past few days. The December 4th facet crystal and raincrust weakness is getting buried deeper, but the crust can still be found on the surface in some wind affected terrain. Although this buried weakness has gradually been gaining strength, we did see significant results on this layer yesterday in specific terrain features. Shallow rocky terrain is facetted as well, and failures there could propagate into the deeper instabilities as well.
Weather: Unsettled weather today with a trace to two centimeters expected. The next frontal system is expected to arrive this evening bringing heavy precipitation and strong winds overnight. The winds should taper tommorrow morning with snowfall accumulations of ten to fifteen centimeters by the afternoon.
