[Rebob]

He's been around lots. Just not posting on TTips. A little disaffected with the vibe.

[Rebob]

BC photog Jonathan W took this shot on Cowboy yesterday...

Pretty much captures the past two days perfectly.

[Orange Pekoe]

Thanks, Rebob! We were actually out on the Sunday and decided to bypass the crowds and head straight for the boundary. One of our party got chased by a 0.5 windslab (probably from the reverse loading) on a convexity on Cowboy which gave me some pause for thought while taking pics. Aside from that glitch, we tried to steer clear of those features. All aspects skied well due to cold temps, some reverse loading and a total lack of wind below the ridgetops. Here's the rest of the set:

http://tinyurl.com/7fslwtu

Orange Pekoe.

PS. The elusive LL was spotted in a certain moldable liner company on Friday, getting his European friends equipped before their trip to the Pass!

[Rebob]

HaHa. Forgot your handle in TTips territory. Your photos this year have been so fine! Good to see you got Rob out with you as well. Great day to wear a fine toque!

Yes, LL has been doing some serious shepherding with his Swiss friends. Hard to go wrong in the province at this point. Thanks for the link to the rest of the shots!

[Whitehonky]

[Rebob]

[tortoise]

[quote="Rebob"]

[Rebob]

Well, the first model fizzled big time and there's very little left on the near horizon, but it looks like some promising patterns in the beginning of next week. Sort of a homegrown process that is as often right as wrong...

Lots going on in the upper snowpack today. Lots of planar shears in the upper 70-75 cm over the buried 120216 layer. Most results on this layer in the CTM range, but almost always a "pop" result. A regular CTE (3) result down 35cm on a rime crust on NW aspects at 2150m, sudden planar. Quite a fickle layer, the rime crust not bonding on top or below. Facets evident beneath this layer.

Rutsch 3 Whole Block down 35 on same rime crust on NW aspect at 2150m with a 50kg skier (!). Angle at 36 degrees. RB5 at same area down 70cm on 120216 layer.

Good skiing still to be had on unconsolidated snow from TL down and on lee of ridgecrests. Ski pen generally 40-50cm. Easy ski cuts just lee of ridgetops in steeper unsupported convex rolls. Although clear and sunny, not much solar effect unless very steep true south aspects with rocky bluffs.

No naturals observed today.

[Rebob]

A few more folks out on Friday getting tracks. Snow skiing quite well, even high up. Winds on Friday afternoon from the NE in the Spearhead. Ski pen around 15-20 and about 10cm of convective light fluff on top at higher elevations. North aspects still the ticket, as southerly aspects were showing the effects of the sun from Thursday.

On SW slopes at TL, found a thin zipper crust beneath the new convective. No big deal and skied well down to about 1750m where the crust became a little stronger. By 1650m the crust was fully supportive.

No instabilities, beyond sluffing in steeper terrain, noted.

Saturday, however, was a different horse. We accessed the Bumps from BTL as high winds were ripping the ridgetops. As we hit TL, snow consistency became rapidly more cakey and windslabs were obvious. Shooting cracks to 10m in both directions noted near ridgecrests, and where slopes were steep enough, ski cuts moved moderate slabs easily. Even some slabs developing in treed terrain at TL.

We skied within the trees on a NE slope and found ski pen good, up to 45cm. Snow unconsolidated in thicker trees, but a little sticky on top by 1650m. Our climbing track onto Oboe occasionally showed some sticking, as temps were rising. No new slides observed, and only one party of two seen before we dropped over Oboe into the apostle with the glide cracks.

The glide cracks have opened up in the past two weeks and been filled in somewhat from the last few storms. Skied trees to 35 degrees into progressively thicker snow. Turns good, but by Melody Creek the surface was moist. Climbing up onto Cowboy, the first 125m vert was pretty sticky snow and the skin wax is now back in my pack for the spring...

We popped into the Corral and noted only one climbing track from yesterday climbing out. All skier tracks up high were completely filled in. On the lee of Cowboy, a moderate windslab had developed up to 80cm thick. Any pressure put on this slab created shooting cracks and some settlements. On steeper slopes this slab moved easily and ran moderately long.

We continued to an island of trees at the upper limit of Whitebark Pine where there is a slight convexity onto a 32 degree slope. First cut released a thin slab, up to 20cm thick, which ran smoothly and fast on the windpress created by early storm winds from last night coming out of the SE. We skied the slightly more supported terrain to the SE and found ski pen at about 40cm and good turns. With a slight change in aspect the windpress was inconsequential and skiing was very enjoyable. We did a few laps on this slope but did not venture into steeper terrain over the corral cirque itself as it was evident that ski quality would be less and there were signs that yesterday's skiers at that elevation had been releasing slabs. Winds were sufficient that our track was filled in at upper levels on each lap. Trailbreaking on each lap...heaven for Kevin.

Skied NW aspect trees from the north end of Cowboy to Melody Creek on the way out. At 1500 hrs, temps were 2C at 1600m and any fresh on the track was getting sticky. Singing Pass Trail in very good shape. All creek crossing are well-bridged.

[Mrs. Gurstin]

I'm posting up for information's sake because I believe all information is helpful when it comes to making decisions in the back-country. But as it wasn't our group that was involved, I have mixed emotions about doing so.

Around noon today we came across a group that had just triggered an avalanche in the Vantage / Cerise area. They were on a N-NW slope - below the 2000m sub-peak at the N end of the N ridge of Vantage Peak

The rough coordinates as taken from Google Earth are:
50°20'34.95"N
122°24'21.28"W

The slide was triggered from much higher up than those coordinates, but due to the terrain we could not see where. It was at least a size 2 - 2.5, based on what we could see. Those coordinates were where we could see somebody was caught.

I have no details on what layer it slid, and am not prepared to estimate the length it ran or how wide. Just wanted to mention a slide had occurred.

FL was much higher than the 1200m forecast. Temps were warm (t-shirt and baseball cap warm) but we were still fairly sheltered from the wind and had only reached 1500m when we came across the slide.

Party of 4, 1 person caught - partial burial. The group managed to get the injured individual out back to the highway where some other helpful parties transported them to the Pemby clinic.

If the involved party is reading this, I hope all is OK. We filed a partial report to the CAC, further details would be helpful for all BC users.

To anyone else at the parking area when we got out - thank you for the help.

[Rebob]

A couple of conversations and some thoughts on another thread got me thinking about the past little while and the number of avalanche involvements going on in the Whistler area this season, especially since New Year's.

We've had forecasts to 65 days in 2012 and the ratings for avy danger for Sea-to-Sky by the CAC on the evening before have had the following breakdowns:

1.Moderate=32%
2.Considerable=37%
3.High=31%

That means that 68% of the time in 2012, Alpine Danger rating has been Considerable or High. That's a high percentage of days with more complicated risk management required. A significantly high percentage of our alpine terrain is also rated Complex.

But looking at weekend (Sat/Sun) ratings for 2012, an even more interesting picture is revealed. In 2012, on weekends, actual danger ratings for alpine have been:

1.Moderate 26%
2.Considerable 42%
3.High=31.5%

So, on arguably the busiest touring days of early 2012, Considerable or High ratings have been 73.5% of the total, or three of every four.

[sandy]

Just thinking, in the other thread you mention the 2.5 week drought (which was closer to 4 weeks in my neck of the woods), and I can't help but wonder how your breakdown of hazard ratings would compare with a year without a significant period of no snowfall. My guess is hazard ratings would be overall lower. In other words, these long drought periods this year are contributing (major cause?) to the prolonged periods of "considerable" avalanche hazard.

[Rebob]

Sandy, the drought period is when ratings did occasionally drop to Moderate. Of course, redistribution of snow, sun intensity on southern aspects, and near surface facetting and SH development during the period gave us a nasty layer to throw more snow on.

But in the analysis of 2012 only, it was during the periods of constant storming that ratings were higher, so I'd have to look into things a little further to establish that trend. Off the cuff, however, I'd expect ratings higher during periods of regular storming.

[sandy]

I can see hazard dropping to moderate during the drought, but, with regular continuous storms, I figure you wouldn't get the persistent weak layers developing during the drought that contribute to considerable hazard for long periods after the drought is over.

Without running any statistics, I would guess that our worst years in the Interior, are those when we have extended snow-free periods, as those persistent layers develop and take far longer to stabilize than storm snow weaknesses, which would typically tighten up in a couple of days, versus a month or so for PWL's.

Hazard would not be high for long, but it would sit at considerable for a month or longer. Which, in lots of ways, seems much harder to deal with than a brief period of high hazard settling down to moderate hazard.

[Claudia]

Maybe the difference between the Coast and the Interior? With the frequent warm weather on the Coast PWL probably disappear faster and don’t stick around for very long, and (usually) don't play such an important role. On the Coast we get a big dump of (warm, heavy) snow, avy danger is high for a couple of days, then everything settles, if we are lucky we get moderate conditions for a couple of days until the next front comes through (just in time for the weekend )