Latest News – Wallowa Avalanche Center

A trip up McCully today (Sunday). Quite a potpourri of surfaces. Some possible trouble for the future, some not. Looked at the snowpack in some detail today. Friday tune in for all the details.

Enjoy the photos of current conditions and coverage in this basin today.

We rise this morning with cold valley temps (20) but an inversion going on up in high country. At 8am 8000′ temps are in the upper 30’s. Expect partly sunny skies today with upper elevation temps staying near 40 with increasing winds from the south.

Yesterday was a most pleasant day up in the Aneroid Basin. So warm!, that glopping on the skins was a huge problem when in and out of the sun and shade. Our usual Friday morning summary will be available first thing tomorrow!

The Board of Directors and Advisors wish you a wonderful day and we here at WAC are thankful we can provide this service to you.

Shoulda’ brought my skiis! What was I thinkin’. About 8″ new snow since Friday night at 7500′ today (Sunday) at Aneroid Lake. Winds are a blow-in’ up there tho. The post holing wore me out so I stopped at the lake. I’ll be back up there on Wednesday for a full look including pit data recording and stability evals. I’ll get some average snowpack depths then.

On Monday evening November 16th, WAC Board Members Ken Bronec and Roger Averbeck provided a 1.5 hour avalanche safety presentation to our local Wallowa County Search and Rescue Unit. The training was well attended, with approx. 2 dozen WC SAR members present. In addition to traditional topics, the discussion included strategic shoveling, onsite medical treatment of avalanche victims, and the proposed (new) North American Public Avalanche Danger Scale. An on snow field training session will be scheduled in January 2010.

Roger Averbeck, Education Chairperson,
Wallowa Avalanche Center

On Tuesday I joined Keith on one of his biweekly (at least) trips into the snow to gather observations for the Center. I spent the night in Joseph attending Roger and Ken’s excellent awareness presentation for Wallowa County SAR. That night the wind howled something fierce all night. Around 3 am the power went out. We convinced ourselves through some creative meteorological hypothesizing that the wind might subside at the higher elevations. Ted, a good friend from upstate New York joined us on this adventure. The drive up to Salt Creek summit was uneventful thanks to Keith and Ted pushing my car a short distance on some slick ice. With temps in the low 50’s, we left the parking lot around 10 am. Hiking along the summer trail, it was obvious that a lot of snow had been transported since Keith had skied up on Sunday along the same route. Large sections of the trail were bare to the ground, while others still had remnants of Keith’s skin track.

As we moved up in elevation the wind seemed to get stronger, making it difficult to stand up at times. We huddled around small trees several times hoping not to get blown away.

I wore heavy mountaineering boots for this “hike” and felt pretty stupid with them on in 50 degree temps at first. As we passed the 7800ft level, we encountered several areas where the wind scouring had left a very hard slick surface. Now my heavy boots came in pretty handy. Around 8200 feet, Ted took a step that resulted in a load “woomph”…. a tell-tail sign of instability. Ted was out for a short visit basically taking a break from driving between Hood River and Texas. I’m sure this was about the last thing he imagined doing!

We topped out on Fat Ridge where some areas were bare to the ground and others were knee deep in snow. Keith made some quick observations in one of the snow areas, and then we headed back down. As we descended our route up, in some areas our tracks in the snow were already completely covered. It seemed a huge relief to get back in the trees for a break from the wind! It was a great hike nonetheless – Thank you Keith and Ted.

Julian Pridmore-Brown

Today I was on Wing Ridge. I ascended Fat (Phat) Ridge to the top and hung a right (NW) over to the edge of Salt Crk Headwall to have a look. The usual – scouring – BUT I’ll tell ‘ya, I had great fun tele-turning down NE aspect Fat in 8-10″ of pretty darn nice well settled medium density POW! On the way up, did my usual snow testing, as all of us do, right? Found some sensitivity with a couple clean shears on what may have been a thin surface hoar layer between this most recent soft wind slab and the previous one. Not a major concern since I ski cut it then skied it without consequences (it was under 32 degrees). With the upcoming warmth expected for Monday & Tuesday I hope it doesn’t crust it up! See pics below. Remember to check out the full report this Friday morning.

Keith

Another snow in downtown Joseph. 3.75″ @ 4150′ including that which was on the ground from yesterday. At 8000′ around 10″ total new snow since yesterday morning. Things are lookin’ good for getting some of those rocks covered up there; if we can just keep the wind from kicking up!

Yesterday I was up on Hidden Peak at 8750′ with lotsa wind but had 3-5″ of nice soft stuff within the trees and in sheltered areas. Look for the complete report tomorrow morning (Friday) early.

Today (Sunday) I visited McCully Basin on the Hidden Peak ridgeline for my observations. Yikes. Was a tad windy. SSW winds at 20+ gusting to 30+. Lots of wind slab stuff to watch out for. Pics say it all. Remember the detailed report coming your way this Friday.

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Last night (Thursday) it was down right balmy. But this morning the winds have begun to change ushering in a cold front as promised with a bit of moisture. Spotty rain and wind last night in the valley but light snow in the mountains today (already have a couple inches) will give us a chance to think winter once again with the hope that at least the base snowpack we have acquired won’t all go away before winter really takes hold.

All of WAC’s Board of Directors and advisors are working hard with great ideas soon to be implemented to make what we offer YOU, better. Julian, our web guy, well, just look at what there is on this site already! We’re pulling together a great Observers network thanks to Ken, upcoming educational stuff with Roger and Penny designed some great promotional stuff for us. Also, we’ve got some new business sponsors. Look at their logo’s and click on ‘em for more info below.

Your Director is excited about this next season and keep checking in.
Don’t forget our weekly Conditions Summary every Friday morning early.
Keith

Enjoy the couple pics below of my outing near Tenderfoot Pass in Aneroid Basin today. Funny how the valley appeared to be sunny most of the day and above 8000′ was blue sky, but a mid level cloud bank kept 5500′ -> 8000′ in the clouds and rime all day.

We now have a rain crust sandwich, at least around the 8400′ level. All the particulars will be shared when the normal Friday morning Conditions Summary report comes out. See you then.