Latest News – Wallowa Avalanche Center

Our July Board of Directors meeting yielded lots of good stuff that all of us have either completed or are in the midst of preparing for next winter.

WAC met with our Senior Advisor, Don Sharaf who offered some great suggestions for improvements which you will likely see on our website this winter. Julian is busy planning for some major changes to the environment that our website runs within and just might be implemented for next winter.

WAC submitted a proposal to the USFS Enterprise Office intended to get the wheels rolling on development of a partnership between WAC and Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

Our weather station deployment is now imminent. During next week (weather permitting) WAC, along with our very supportive community group (JosephOregonWeather, our Sheriff’s Office, and Wallowa Lake Tramway) will be placing a complete weather station on top of Mt. Howard at 8150 feet. This station will provide the following data: Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Current temperature, Humidity, Barometric pressure, and Rainfall.

This data will be available free of charge on www.wallowaavalanchecenter.org ‘Local Weather button’ but also on www.josephoregonweather.com. Look for data availability late next month (August).

Check back often as we keep updating this blog with the latest. Hope you summer is going well ‘cuz ours sure is.

Keith

Many meetings have been scheduled to advance the cause of WAC and propel us into the future.

Throughout the month of July we have planned to meet with:

• The USFS Enterprise Office until the unfortunate loss of the entire office. We will schedule later when things have settled down.
• The Director of the National Avalanche Center
• Our Senior Advisor
• Several other avalanche center directors or longtime avalanche practitioners of note

Results of these meetings will help direct us into the future and develop a sound relationship with our local Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

In addition we are developing relationships and soliciting assistance from folks in the snowmobile community and Anthony Lakes Ski Resort.

We continue to work toward the installation of weather instrumentation through a cooperative effort with Wallowa County Sheriffs Office, Wallowa Lake Tramway and Scott Hampton of JosephOregonWeather. This endeavor, when operational, will provide important weather data from the summit of Mt. Howard. More details will surely follow by the end of this month after exploratory trips up there yield our installation schedule.

Stay tuned…..

Keith Stebbings

While summer seems a little slow to come in Northeast Oregon, the snow is melting rapidly, making time for us to focus on improving our product for next winter. Work is underway to improve the workings of our website, including a transition to a Content Management System which will give us greater flexibility in updating content to provide the most relevant, up to date information. A new system to interface with our observers is also underway, working towards disseminating observer information in a more efficient manner.

Part of our mission includes supporting other organizations that require snow hazard information. We have been in discussions with Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort and hope to improve our product directed at the Northern Elkhorns next winter.

Continuing our efforts to support the ECX Sled Dog Race, we conducted a late season aerial survey of the southern Wallowas. We provided ECX with images to assist race managers in developing hazard mitigation plans.

Our flight over Memorial Day weekend revealed that winter was still firmly in command of the southern Wallowas! Fish lake was still completely frozen with 100% snow cover all around it. Recent flooding has done significant damage to both the 66 Road (Fish Lake Road) and the 39 Road (Wallowa Lake Highway). If you head out there, you might want to check on current road closures!

Julian Pridmore-Brown

While I’m in Portsmouth, NH where it’s sunny and in the mid – 70’s Joseph downtown has the ground all around looking quite white rather than green. Hmmm.

Today I spent nearly an hour on the phone with Clyde Raymer, the President of the Eagle Cap Extreme sled-dog race. We discussed numerous programs that both of us will be providing during the race in mid January. WAC will be providing twice daily up-to-date forecasts for the benefit of the backcountry users, snowmobilers and the mushers and volunteers during race week. We are also working through the details of providing two avalanche awareness seminars/presentations during race week also.

Details will follow as we firm them up.  Enjoy the snow and pray for some springtime warmth.

Keith

At last weeks Board of Directors meeting the Center voted in Scott Hampton of Joseph as Technical Advisor. Scott will be assisting in an advisory capacity and supporting us in instrument installations as we move forward with our proposed remote weather stations. Scott brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with weather instrumentation and radio communications to this position. We have some great plans in the works for making new weather data available to the general public soon and Scott is an integral part in assisting us in this endeavor.

Shortly we will be announcing more specific information on what type of weather station is proposed and likely to be fully functional by this coming fall; in time for our next great backcountry winter.

Stay tuned…..

Keith

Expect one last day of unseasonably warm weather today (Monday April 19). Tuesday through Wednesday a strong cold front with mountain snow will be our weather story.

During this warm spell numerous wet slides have been occurring on nearly all aspects at mid elevations. Some can be seen from Joseph on the Chief Joseph Mountain ridgeline.

Night-time temperatures the last several days have been at or above freezing. Therefore the existing snow surface has not had time enough to refreeze and solidify. This new snow will be landing on a very wet (unfrozen) old snow surface after yet another warm day today and above freezing temps tonight. The NWS has the storm beginning as rain early tomorrow morning even at 9000 feet. See the Aneroid Mtn milepost forecast on our Local Weather button.

Be mindful that this new snow will be very susceptable to avalanching when traveling in avalanche terrain.

We will update this blog if any new information comes our way between now and the end of April. Please see our final summary (issued 4-9-10) for additional things to watch for throughout the remainder of the season.

Keith

Following suit with other avalanche centers regionally, today (Friday, April 9) is our last weekly summary of the season. The Payette Avalanche Center completed their last regularly scheduled advisory last weekend but will continue to issue an update only if conditions warrant or change significantly. The Utah Avalanche Center shuts down for the season on Sunday April 11.

We may update the home page blog with condition information if we receive enough backcountry info to warrant it until the end of April.

Please look over this weeks summary, April 9, because it has a lot of good stuff to watch for between now and when there just isn’t any snow left up there.

We appreciated serving you this winter season with the summaries, educational offerings, weather info and the like. Over the summer we will periodically place things of interest on the home page blog so check it out. Things like what’s going on with WAC staff and plans for WAC’s next season.

A BIG THANK YOU to our sponsors below and all our individual donors. We very much appreciate your dollars to keep us going.

Safe travels for the remainder of the season,   Keith and all of us here at WAC

Enjoy this last set of pictures and a video from Fergi Fest Saturday April 3. Additional pics can be seen in WAC’s previous blog entry or check out the Ferguson Ridge website found on our ’Other Links’ page.

Friday will be our last weekly summary of the season, found on our ‘Current Conditions’ page. It will contain a briefer summary of current conditions found this week up there. More importantly it will have a collection of things to look for and keep in mind when traveling in or around avalanche terrain from now until the snow leaves the mountains for good in summer.

The following link is a video of the women’s downhill ski race. Tammy Knorr was the winner and this is truly regular speed film making, NOT fast-forward!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ50doDL2YM

Brian and Charlie working out the all important pre-race logistics

Andie Lueders (L) and Penny Arentsen (middle). Andie is a very helpful volunteer of WAC and Penny is on WAC's Board of Directors

An evening of music and dancing completed the excellent festivities at Fergi-Fest!

It’s quite an event at the end of Ferguson Ridge Ski Area’s normal season. A great community event with lots of socializing, some downhill racing, great skiing and of course the lawn chair race! The evening was filled with great entertainment – dancing!

The weather was splendid and last weeks’ big dump of snow provided for great coverage all over the mountain. Compare this years coverage with some previous years and most would agree that it looks like mid winter up there.

Enjoy the photos. Just a random few (can’t put them all up at once). Check out this blog for additional ones the next few days.

PS – The ‘I love Charlie’ T-shirts are in appreciation of all that Charlie Kissinger has done for Fergi and a wish for his continued good health.

A beautiful Fergi Fest day

The mens alpine downhill race

Ken Gebhardt - the mens alpine downhill winner

The lawn chair 'Super-Modified' downhill race

James Johnson (Joseph Hardware) left and Keith Stebbings. James was a contestant in the lawn chair 'Super-Modified'.

WAC staff. L to R: Dana Nave, Keith Stebbings, Charla Whiting, Ken Bronec, Roger Averbeck. Staff not present in photo: Penny Arentsen and Julian Pridmore-Brown.

Updated information can be found at:

http://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=ORZ050&warncounty=ORC063&firewxzone=ORZ635&local_place1=12+Miles+SE+Joseph+OR&product1=Winter+Weather+Advisory

Very strong winds and blowing and drifting snow will continue to intensify this afternoon and overnight. Mountain conditions likely to be quite severe through early Saturday morning.

Please use our Local Weather button and consult the wide range of National Weather Service products available to you or check the above link frequently for updates during this storm cycle.