United States Avalanche Control Council

Swiss Avalanche Rescue Dog School

2011-05-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

I know that many of you are dog handlers, so I thought I would give you guys and update:

Swiss Avalanche Rescue

Dog School

Steven Pass Washington
March 5^th - 9^th, 2012

Hello All,

Just wanted to get the word out before the ski season ends. Put the dates on the calendar. Look for a email in the Fall/early Winter for the details.

Please forward this information to any and all professional avalanche dog programs.

Thanks

For more information or to book your space please call Chris Hunter at 509-393-4195 or email chunter@stevenspass.com.

Second Large Avalanche at Mt. Hood Meadows

2011-04-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

Another behemoth came down the Heather/Clark Canyon drainage. For the full write up from the Snow Safety Team at Meadows, plus many good pictures, click here...

Annual Meeting at Ski Bowl:

2011-04-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

This year’s annual Northwest Forecaster’s Meeting and United States Avalanche Control Council (USACC) meeting was held at Mt. Hood Ski Bowl on March 15^th & 16^th, with participants from seven regional ski areas and representatives from the National Forest Service on Mt. Hood. Our thanks once again have to go out to Brett Wesson and the Ski Bowl Ski Patrol for the use of their facilities and for being such gracious hosts.

The first day started off with coffee and doughnuts, and the aforementioned Brett Wesson, giving us a description of the history, facilities, and boundary area of Mt. Hood Ski Bowl. After greetings and introductions, he went into the challenges he has been faced with from essentially having to create an avalanche mitigation program from the ground up when he took over as the ski patrol manager four years ago. These challenges were created by the fact that his predecessor had essentially run the program by himself and without leaving any written policies or guidelines available upon his departure. This has been his challenge since taking over.

After Brett was Taylor Everett, Snow Safety Supervisor at the Mission Ridge Ski Resort, just outside of Wenatchee, Washington. He began his presentation with a “bird’s” eye view of the ski area, highlighting the area of concern for his presentation. This being an out-of-bounds area that seldom receives enough snow to be skiable, but two seasons ago, was the site of an avalanche burial and subsequent partner rescue. Included in the case study was the weather reports, results of the mitigation work done that morning, and the unique challenges in association with the reporting from the incident, namely the confusion with Rivercom (911 provider) and an MVA on a similar longitude concerning a Chevy “Avalanche”. This incident showed that even with proper forecasting and mitigation measures, bad things can still happen, and sometimes luck prevails.

Chris Morin, Assistant Snow Safety Supervisor for the Crystal Mt. Ski Patrol, was the next to present with a recap of deep snow safety and the NARSID (Non-Avalanche Related Snow Immersion Death) phenomenon. In-bounds burials and out-of-bounds burials tend to receive much more attention at the ski area though NARSID deaths are much more prevalent statistically, and have almost no signage associated with them. Highlighting on liability issues such as failure to warn and failure to rescue, Chris recommended to the group that we treat such reports as we would for any avalanche burial, in-bounds or out, promote current educational aids such as the deep snow safety flyer and treewellsnowsafety.com, and the creation of suffocation hazard signage to be put up when the conditions warrant. The presentation’s next phase broke down a recent case study of a local man that is presumed to be a NARSID at Crystal Mt., how the hill was partitioned into sections to facilitate the search, and the community’s response to find one of their own.

Betsy Norsen, of Mt. Bachelor presented after with a breakdown of a unique feature to their hill called the “Moraine”. This constantly changing feature has presented a dangerous challenge to their mitigation efforts, as it remains inconsistent in slope angles throughout the year, and inconsistent in its slide history. Mt. Bachelor has very interesting environmental factors, including a lack of visibility during storm cycles, simultaneous wind directions affecting the feature, and extreme rimeing that renders their telemetry, as it pertains to the Moraine, almost non-existent. Introducing mitigation crews to this environment presented unacceptable risks to the patrol, and after several near misses, a solution had to be created. After safety considerations were analyzed, room in the budget was made for an avalauncher to assist in mitigation efforts. Even adding the remote-fire capability of the avalauncher and a new round, challenges of the slide history on the Moraine still persist, and new solutions are still being sought.

After breaking for lunch, Chris Talbot, Patrol Manager at White Pass Ski Area presented. His issue pertained to the area’s recent expansion, which was the largest in North America this year. The question on his mind was “how do you educate the stupid”? With over sixty lost persons venturing into the new terrain, White Pass became very creative in encouraging its guests to become aware of the new boundary. This started as lollies, quickly progressed to rope lines, and finally to permanent fencing, especially in the problem area’s Chris highlighted. The propensity of backcountry use, and therefore searches, in certain zones has lead the area to ask the Forest Service to include a zone along Highway 12, recessed to more safely move skiers up and off the highway.

A more sobering topic brought Patty Morrison, Snow Safety Supervisor at Stevens Pass, to us. Her presentation was about an avalanche fatality that occurred in the backcountry near Leavenworth in Washington. Patty broke down the circumstances that lead to the event, including weather and snowpack analysis dating several months back. She also showed a slide show of the surrounding area, pictures of the areas that had been previously skied by the group that day, the pocket that initiated the larger slide, and the run-out of the path. Included also was the pit-profile taken from the scene. The level of experience of the group, being composed almost entirely of ski patrollers, or former patrollers, and all with local backcountry or avalanche science training, indicated that the sport we’ve dedicated ourselves to is still not completely under our control. Even when everything is done right, the mountain still has the final say.

Lastly was Tighe Stoyanof, Snow Safety Supervisor at Mt. Hood Meadows, showing us the latest monster out of the Heather and Clark Canyon drainage. A four to twenty foot crown, originating in the ski area boundary (Super Bowl), gouged out thirty foot walls, and left a deposition pile of upwards of sixty feet within a hundred feet of the upper exit chair from Heather Canyon. It also came within a hundred yards of the historical run-out. Tighe pointed out new techniques that he and his team have been able to use to pinpoint the exact time of the slide to determine what its trigger may have been. This time they were able to use seismic sensors, placed on Mt. Hood from the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, to determine exactly when the slide came down and corroborate that information with their shot records and tell that it came down from an explosive artillery charge. He also mentioned the weather and snowpack factors that lead to the event, and the new artillery placements they have been working with to improve the efficacy their program.

The final half hour of day one was spent discussing Chapter business. We covered the upcoming Pacific Northwest Chapter of the ISEE Annual Meeting and Seminar, and encouraged our membership to become members of their local chapter. As blasters, we all essentially do the same thing, and legislation that affects one of us, affects all. With a unified voice, we gain greater acceptance within the industry at large, and become more effective at addressing legislation pertaining to the safe operation of our field. It was announced that the ISEE would like to see the creation of a sub-section to the Society for avalanche mitigation, and the USACC would be an appropriate group to get that ball rolling. The invitation from the international organization should be taken seriously and as an honor. After last fall’s avalanche mitigation blasting seminar, we came to the conclusion that we essentially missed our target audience. Instead of changing that audience, we decided that another time of the year would be more appropriate to encourage beginning blasters to be involved. The conclusion we came to was that we should attach next year’s seminar to the Pacific Northwest Regional APP Mid-Winter Clinic, as an educational portion. The APP helped us with our previous clinic, and our target audience will be there already, and in our region as well. This seemed a natural fit. Next we discussed potential locations for next year’s annual meeting. Montana and Idaho was struck down, and it was decided to go back to Washington, to either Stevens Pass or Mt. Baker. Expect more information on these subjects later.

On day two, we all met at the Outback lodge around 9:00am ready for a day on the snow. Ski Bowl was not open for operations during the day so the area was ours with 6" of new. With Mountain Dept. standing by to turn chairs each lap, we spun a half-dozen laps in Upper Bowl examining routes and shot locations. After a brief stop at Ski Bowl's Patrol facilities, we moved on to the Outback terrain for two more laps of the same. Topics of conversation included route safety, effective shot placement, terrain management, and avalanche rescue training, among others. The skiing conditions were excellent and allowed for a thorough tour of the area. After a day of learning and laying down fresh tracks, we called it a day at around 3:00pm and headed back to the lodge for beverages.

This year’s Annual Meeting was a great success. Much thanks again to all that presented, attended, and helped make the meeting run as well as it did. Thanks again to Mt. Hood Ski Bowl for the facilities, and Brett Wesson for making sure it all happened. See you all next year!

Local ISEE chapter takes position on pending explosives legislature in Washington

2011-03-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

Washington State Legislature considers HB1066 and SB5254

SB5254 modifies the time frames for magazine inspection and licensing. Read more by clicking this link to the Washington State Legislature.

HB1066 modifies the regulation of storage and transport of larger amounts of black powder. Read more by clicking this link . to the Washington State Legislature.

See Comments to view the PNW Chapter's position on these bills.

Speaking of boundary issues...

2011-03-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of Whistler-Blackcomb

Whistler condemns out-of-bound adventure seekers

From the Vancouver Sun

Whistler-Blackcomb officials are warning a recent trend in which people are going in record numbers into avalanche-prone closed areas could turn deadly. Doug MacFarlane, WB's manager of mountain operations, said they will pull the passes of anyone caught going into an area that may be closed permanently or closed while avalanche blasting is being conducted. More

Annual USACC Meeting - Mt. Hood Ski Bowl, March 15th & 16th

2011-03-03T00:33:00.001-08:00

This year's annual Western Chapter meeting is set for March 15th & 16th at Mt. Hood Ski Bowl Winter Resort. Day one will have presenters from around the region informing us about the happenings of the previous year. Don't forget your skis though. Day two will be on snow as Brett Wesson, Ski Patrol Manager at Mt. Hood Ski Bowl, will give us the tour of the area.

Thanks again to Mr. Wesson and Ski Bowl Winter Resort, and all the hard work they have put in for us, and for being our hosts this year.

See you all soon.

Wy'East Face Slide, Mt. Hood Meadows, 1/17/10

2011-03-03T00:06:00.000-08:00

Check out this R4 - D4 slide, posted last season to the Mt. Hood Meadows blog.

http://www.skihood.com/Community-and-News/Meadows-Blog/Posts/2010/01/Anatomy-of-an-Avalanche

Thanks to the Meadows Snow Safety Team for the great pictures and breakdown of this beast.

Avalanche Mitigation Seminar, October 30th & 31st 2010, Snoqualmie Pass

2011-03-02T22:51:00.000-08:00

Here is an overview of the Avalanche Mitigation Blasting Seminar put on by the USACC this last fall, in conjunction with the American Avalanche Association (AAA), and the Association of Professional Patrollers (APP).

Our thanks goes out to both of those organizations for their continued support in the realm of avalanche mitigation training.

Northwest Snow & Avalanche Summit

2009-10-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday October 24th 8:30am
REI Flagship Store, Seattle WA.
Price $40.00
Phone-(360)319-2421

2009 Fall Avalanche & Weather Training

2009-09-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

I attended a Weather Forecasting seminar on September 19th. This was put on by the NWAC, AAA and Central Washington University. Instructors where Mark, Garth and Kenny from the NWAC.
Being how I am not a weather forecaster it was good to go over basic meteorology first before we went into weather maps and how to read them.
Garth did an excellent presentation on the Tool Box and how and what he looks at when making a weather forecast.
This was an excellent forum for me anyway to better understand what these guys are thinking when creating a forecast and when I read the weather forecast.
It seems it is very crucial for us out in the Field to give input to these guys to confirm their forecasts.
I hope they do it again next year.

If you have any weather or avalanche training you can post it here.

Check out the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the International Society of Explosives Engineers at www.iseepnw.com and consider joining. This chapter is an avenue for all aspects of blasting, blasters and public to communicate through.

Jon Andrews

Post Control Avalanches

2009-04-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

Spring Time Avalanches

2009-04-08T05:51:00.001-07:00

Avalanche Control Resources

2009-04-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

Mission Statement

2009-04-01T08:37:00.001-07:00

The Mission of the United States Avalanche Control Council is to promote safety and awarness in avalanche control through communication with other blasters.Topics for discussion are: Explosives used in avalanche control, avalanche forecasting, weather forecasting, avalanche rescue and other pertinant information such as regulatory, licensing, training and seminar information that partain to avalanche control.In this discussion forum we will not use names of individuals, product names or names of companies.

BLOG. Name Change

2009-03-31T18:02:00.000-07:00

What ah March !!!

2009-03-31T17:47:00.000-07:00

Anybody use ICAR Guidelines for Avalanche Rescue?

2009-03-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

Dose anyone know how to attach documents and photos to a BLOG?

2009-03-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

Mt. Hood Forecasters Meeting--update

2009-03-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

January Faceted Layer-Activity???

2009-03-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

Anyone seen avalanche activity down in the faceted layer from January. Right now on an hourly basic we are having to make decisions about the Susan Jane slide path, which is in wilderness, but effects in bounds skiing at Stevens Pass.
The only activity we have seen lately has been in the new 56" of snow fall over the past 4 or 5 days.
We may try and heli-shoot early in the week. Will see what Patty Morrison pulls out of the snow profile tommorow.

Forecasters Meeting, Mt. Hood March 12th and 13th

2009-03-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

Click on the title for meeting notes.

This is not the usual Spring Time Snowpack in the Cascades

2009-03-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

The snow pack in and around the Stevens Pass area is a mixture of Maritime and Continental layering conditions.
Some back country reports and observations from ski touring recently show even though snow pack tests show little energy in the pack, some local, large skier triggered avalanche activity--to ground in some cases.
The back country skiing right now is outstanding--don't let that cloud your judgment.

Powder Skiing in March???

2009-03-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

WOW this morning it was clear and 3 degrees at Stevens. With a few inches of snow overnight and the last few storm cycles made for some of the best powder skiing I have seen in a while.

The WACC hour at the Forecasters meeting ,March 12th and 13th Mt. Hood, will include-discussion-the WACC becoming non-profit, and potential web site.

House Bill 1280 regarding blasting licensing cycle in the State of Washington.

ATF- table of distance in regards to ski lift lines.

A WACC proposal to create resources through the WACC involving Explosives used in avalanche control in the NW.
Compile research and development in explosives for avalanche control.
Avalanche Rescue resources in the NW.

NSAA-discussion on verbiage relating to "risk in bounds skiing"

The North West Weather and Avalanche Center HB funding.

The Pacific North West Chapter of the ISEE.

As well as many topics regarding Effects of explosives in snow, forecasting, avalanche rescue etc.

See you there
Jon

Weird Snow Pack conditions

2009-03-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

The Snow Pack continues to settle, settlement being wide spread, loud and scary, with little slide activity. Seems the weak, faceted layer is around 80Cm's on average with tests showing little energy and dirty shears at this time.

This is a little more unusual in the fact that the Slab on the faceted layer seems not to be very cohesive and seems to be under little tension with little, isolated avalanche activity observed.

Jon

Forecasters Meeting March 12th & 13th

2009-03-04T11:03:00.000-08:00

How you doing?
Here is the start of a WACC communication avenue for the North West.
John Schaefer will help to further create this site with links, mission statement, and such.

By the Forecasters meeting hopefully we will have more on this site to offer and acquire more interest.

Jon Andrews