SAIS Forecaster and the Temple of Gloom

28th January 2025

It was a cloudy day on the hill today. From about 600 metres upwards the hills were shrouded in thick cloud making for a gloomy feel. The freezing level was about 950 metres, with a breeze from the North-East. The snowpack has warmed up a bit since yesterday, and continues to slowly consolidate in the settled conditions. Looking to stay cool the next couple of days, and hopefully the cloud will clear at some point, but we might have to wait until Thursday for that to happen.

Poor visibility at the top of the gondola. Even at about 9am it felt pretty gloomy.

Poor visibility half way up the hill.

At the top of the hill, still pretty gloomy!

Rime on my avalanche probe. In the close to freezing temperatures and thick cloud, things were getting damp. Water droplets would hit objects such as this probe. However, it was not cold enough to freeze on impact, but would dribble down a bit before slowly freezing. This resulted in a covering of clear water ice rather than the more usual opaque white rime that forms when the temperature is below about minus one degrees C.

Shortly further up the hill more normal opaque rime on a ski fence. The pattern on the horizontal beam really shows the air flow pattern in that vacinity.

Cracking in the snowpack from my boot. Although there was some cracking in the snowpack in specific locations, the snowpack felt quite warm and sticky. Therefor this felt less of a concern than it would do in a colder more brittle snowpack.

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