1/18/12 EV Thursday Where’s the Snow? High Avi Danger Continues

Big storm was supposedly headed our way.  The jet is on us and it looked promising for last night.  The blob NOAA showed us coming in from the Northwest made giddy as a schoolgirl.  Huge and dipping below AK towards us, finally in a more west to east pattern.  Bring it. I went to bed with powder dreams dancing in my head.

Woke up to another swing and a miss, somehow it went from 1000 percent chance of snow and a blizzard warning to really nothing. All bark no bite. A reoccurring theme this year, not sure how NOAA got it so wrong.  Again.  Now Saturday looks better, but, but honestly I give up on getting excited for storms that NOAA  predicts for us this year.

Wednesday saw the temperatures and humidity rise with the incoming front.  The recent new snow  down lower in the aspens by our second run had begun to settle and were cracking, although not propagating more than a few feet as we plowed through it.  A great indicator that even at lower elevations in the trees, the possibility of avalanching is on the rise.  Rapid change in any piece of the avalanche puzzle weather, wind, temperature is always a warning sign for increasing avalanche danger.

Cracks in the Trees

Winds are still up, and the loading continues.  21 is open today, so the skin out won’t be as long.  Two yesterday and my legs are feeling it.  Might be taking the day off and writing hate mail to NOAA.  Be careful out there, anything in the North facing, wind loaded aspects that haven’t ripped have a good chance of going at all elevations.  Really a strange year so far to say the least.