Greetings Sports Fans
Here is a pre-Christmas South Coastal update
:
Anyone who has been monitoring the weather and snow
reports in the past week knows that something is going on out there, and
the next few days may not be the best time to go looking to head for the wild
lines to test out your new boards that Santa brought you. That being said, a
close watch of the weather and snow condition reports, as they change, will be a
real learning experience. These kind of weather patterns can produce interesting
results.
Conditions at this time are really changing
rapidly. The freezing level is going up and down like a yo-yo which each passing
front. Reports of up to a metre of new snow in the alpine in the past 24 hours,
with significant winds. Also reports of isothermal snowpack below 2000m with the
passing warm fronts.
The next big event will be today and tonight with
forecasters predicting copious amounts of sub-tropical precip (30-50mm) with
freezing levels reaching 2400 m. Although this elevation may be
slightly lower as you move inland. Winds are forecasted to be up to 100 km/hr. Keep in mind
all this new precip is piling up over crusts / facets/ surface hoar in the
alpine which formed in early / mid December. Although rain may penetrate through
these layers at times in the storm cycles, they still might remain preserved at
the higher elevations, and remain a concern for while, even if the skiing gets
better next week.
Professionals in the Duffey Lake area are expecting
avalanches up to size 2.5 in the Alpine and possibly Treeline elevations over
the next day or 2.
Many guides are reporting snow dissapearing rapidly
at the lower elevations (below 1600 m). In fact Diamond Head has no snow in the
parking lot, and it was reported to be a 1.5 km walk on before skis became
useful (3 days ago). Most areas close to the coast are below treeline are below
threshold for avalanching, but keep a weather eye when the freezing levels frop
next week..
There have been a few folks poking around on the
glaciers. Crevasses were beginning to bridge, however confidence in their
strength will be low for a while yet.
Some useful sites to monitor over the next few days
will be :
Merry Christmas!
Brian Gould
Mountain
Guide