Home > Trip Reports > January 23, 2011, Camp Muir, rain and sun

January 23, 2011, Camp Muir, rain and sun

1/23/11
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
6788
15
Posted by Splitter on 1/23/11 10:23pm
Arrived paradise in light rain,  First blue sky at the top of Pan Point, it came and went up to about 8500 where it stayed mostly clear.  Tough going in places with knobby boilerplate ice.  The run down had some long continuous lines of dense smooth windpack and some of the worst ice chickenheads I have seen.  Coming off Pan point we were back in mist and the snow turned to bottomless goo.  Overall a great trip on a questionable weather day.

video here  http://vimeo.com/19115307
Great day to be up there.  Here is another video - Peter carving icy turns.

http://vimeo.com/19115449

Thanks for the report, glad you got above the clouds and into the sunshine. How strong were the winds at Camp Muir?

Just wondering if the forecast 30-40 mph winds actually happened, since the wind speed remains frozen on the NWAC telemetry.

MOUNT RAINIER RECREATIONAL FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
515 AM PST SUN JAN 23 2011

.SYNOPSIS...MILD AND SOMEWHAT WET WEATHER WILL PREVAIL OVER THE AREA THROUGH MONDAY. THE SYSTEM ON MONDAY WILL BE STRONGER...THUS EXPECT A PERIOD OF HEAVY PRECIPITATION ON THE WEST FACING SLOPES. A WEAK COLD FRONT IS ANTICIPATED TO SWEEP ACROSS THE AREA LATE MONDAY... THEREFORE LOOK FOR THE STEADY PRECIPITATION TO TAPER OFF TO SHOWERS BEHIND IT. DRIER WEATHER WILL PREVAIL OVER THE REGION ON TUESDAY UNDER HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT.

.TODAY...RAIN OR SNOW LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL 6500 FEET.
.TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN OR SNOW. SNOW LEVEL 6500 FEET.
.MONDAY...RAIN OR SNOW...HEAVY AT TIMES ON THE WEST FACING SLOPES. SNOW LEVEL 6500 FEET.
.MONDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS...DECREASING AFTER MIDNIGHT. SNOW LEVEL LOWERING TO 4500 FEET.
.TUESDAY...PARTLY SUNNY. A CHANCE OF MORNING SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL 5500 FEET.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. FREEZING LEVEL RISING TO 8500 FEET. 

                      TODAY  TONIGHT  MON    MON    TUE 
                                           NIGHT       

SUMMIT   (14411 FT)     13     10      4      9      5
                      NW 43  NW 26   W 51  NW 53  NW 32

CAMP MUIR(10188 FT)     25     24     21     21     27
                      NW 36  NW 29   W 43  NW 45   N 30

PARADISE  (5420 FT)     39     30     37     26     35
                       W  4  SE  2   S  4  SW  7  SW  3

LONGMIRE  (2700 FT)     42     34     42     30     39
                       CALM   CALM   CALM   CALM   CALM 



Amar,
I can attest that the forecast on Saturday was correct.  It was steady at 30mph with gusts to 50+.  Still nice to be up there in January...

Sunday was different - totally calm at Muir.


Great photos, especially the second one. Are the ovals frozen footprints?

author=JibberD link=topic=19194.msg81464#msg81464 date=1295968711]
Great photos, especially the second one. Are the ovals frozen footprints?


Yes, you could see the alternating step patterns.

Could you shift that last photo to the right a bit? I would like to see the rime on the NWAC wind instruments.  :)

author=Garth_Ferber link=topic=19194.msg81596#msg81596 date=1296057586">
Could you shift that last photo to the right a bit? I would like to see the rime on the NWAC wind instruments.  :)


Here you go.. this was solid stuff, more like milky glass than styrofoam in texture. The vane was still moving, the anemometer is quite immobile.



Also a shot of windy conditions on the way up on Saturday.



Going down, the wind-speed matched skier-speed quite well. Made a fun visual effect, like skiing down on a soft undulating blanket in complete calm.

That second shot is really cool George.

author=Marcus link=topic=19194.msg81600#msg81600 date=1296062963]
That second shot is really cool George.

Ta! Snow plush flash give a funky effect.

Awesome! Ask and ye shall receive! I am planning to put together a talk on how to use and interpret NWAC weather instrument data for the next NSAS workshop. I have been trying to think of ways to get my hands on photos of why instruments sometimes don't work right. Can I use your photo?

What I will do next is post a request on TAY for such photos. The TAY skier army will be unleashed and soon I will have plenty.

By the way the NSAS is a public avalanche workshop that the Friends of the NWAC has been putting on in the fall.

Thanks, Garth

author=Garth_Ferber link=topic=19194.msg81610#msg81610 date=1296073633]
Awesome! Ask and ye shall receive! I am planning to put together a talk on how to use and interpret NWAC weather instrument data for the next NSAS workshop. I have been trying to think of ways to get my hands on photos of why instruments sometimes don't work right. Can I use your photo?

Of course. Consider it in the public domain.

author=Amar Andalkar link=topic=19194.msg81396#msg81396 date=1295897607]
. . . since the wind speed remains frozen on the NWAC telemetry.

author=georg klein link=topic=19194.msg81599#msg81599 date=1296062212]
Here you go.. this was solid stuff, more like milky glass than styrofoam in texture. The vane was still moving, the anemometer is quite immobile.


Looks like the sunshine and 10000+ ft freezing level on late Tuesday into Wednesday finally unfroze the anemometer around 7am on January 26 -- after having been solidly frozen for 12 days:

Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center
Camp Muir, Mt Rainier National Park, Washington
Data also courtesy Mt Rainier National Park

Wind sensors unheated and may rime

  MM/DD   Hour   Temp     RH   Wind   Wind   Wind   Wind  Solar
           PST      F      %    Min    Avg    Max    Dir   W/m2
               10100' 10100' 10100' 10100' 10100' 10100' 10100'
---------------------------------------------------------------
   1 14    500     20     96     18     28     36    220      0
   1 14    600     20     97     23     32     47    220      0
   1 14    700     20     97     24     36     48    220      0
   1 14    800     22     97     28     42     52    220      2
   1 14    900     22     97     29     39     50    220     14
   1 14   1000     22     97     18     30     39    220     34
   1 14   1100     24     98      0      3     30    220     55
   1 14   1200     24     98      0      0      0    220    134
   1 14   1300     24     98      0      0      0    220    165
   1 14   1400     23     98      0      0      0    220    238
   1 14   1500     22     97      0      0      0    220    169
   1 14   1600     19     97      0      0      0    220     76
   1 14   1700     16     95      0      0      0    220     14
   1 14   1800     16     95      0      0      0    220      0
   1 14   1900     17     96      0      0      0    220      0
   1 14   2000     15     95      0      0      0    220      0
   1 14   2100     15     95      0      0      0    220      0
   1 14   2200     16     95      0      0      0    220      0
   1 14   2300     18     96      0      0      0    220      0
   1 15      0     18     96      0      0      0    220      0
   1 15    100     19     96      0      0      0    220      0
   1 15    200     15     95      0      0      0    220      0
   1 15    300     14     94      0      0      0    220      0
   1 15    400     12     94      0      0      0    220      0
    .
    .
    .
   1 26    500     32     56      0      0      0    262      1
   1 26    600     31     54      0      0      0    252      1
   1 26    700     29     56      0      8     31    267      0
   1 26    800     29     19     17     25     32    270      3
   1 26    900     29     55     12     22     32    270    134
   1 26   1000     26     73     10     20     31    288    179
   1 26   1100     30     75      7     16     31    283    326
   1 26   1200     31     74      3     23     39    256    502
   1 26   1300     31     34      3     20     36    261    521
   1 26   1400     31     18     16     25     44    252    430
   1 26   1500     32     32     14     24     34    255    314
   1 26   1600     32     41      8     20     31    256    201
   1 26   1700     33     50     12     19     31    259     57
   1 26   1800     34     39     11     18     32    262      1
   1 26   1900     34     27      7     16     31    262      0
   1 26   2000     34     17      8     17     26    260      0
   1 26   2100     35     14      9     22     37    254      0
   1 26   2200     34     18      8     17     28    259      0
   1 26   2300     35     13     11     18     30    259      0
   1 27      0     36     12     13     19     28    266      1
   1 27    100     36     16     15     26     42    247      1
   1 27    200     36     13     12     21     33    250      1
   1 27    300     36     18     11     19     29    265      0
   1 27    400     36     16     11     20     31    274      0



I do wonder if it is reading low, though, or at least was for that day after freed up. Like I said in my report, I bailed at Pan Point, so wasn't physically at Camp Muir or even on the snowfield. But based on the snow plumes I could see being wind transported off the edges of the snowfield near Moon Rocks, this slice of readings seemed at least 50% low:

            1 27  1500    31    31    19    35    58    255    153
            1 27  1400    31    55    28    38    55    254    281
            1 27  1300    33    15    17    32    54    254    287

Today's readings have some nice beefy numbers, which might mean is more accurately recording. But probably also means that they will soon be iced all over again, as soon as there's moisture in the air.

Well, zooming in on the photo above, the solid rime ice is as high as the anemometer's rotor:



So even after the rotor melted free enough to start spinning, the ice would still substantially obstruct airflow onto the rotor. It would make sense that the readings might be low until the ice melted away enough for the rotor to get an unobstructed flow of wind.

The readings today have certainly reached healthy values of 80-90 mph:

  MM/DD   Hour   Temp     RH   Wind   Wind   Wind   Wind  Solar
           PST      F      %    Min    Avg    Max    Dir   W/m2
               10100' 10100' 10100' 10100' 10100' 10100' 10100'
---------------------------------------------------------------
   1 28    600     18     53     48     69     89    252      0
   1 28    700     18     56     48     72     88    249      0
   1 28    800     18     96     55     72     95    248      5
   1 28    900     15     63     25     60     83    267    107
   1 28   1000     15     36     43     58     79    272    283
   1 28   1100     15     65     38     57     77    250    246
   1 28   1200     15     94     33     62     83    244    236
   1 28   1300     15     94     45     65     85    248    206
   1 28   1400     15     94     42     60     79    260    170



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january-23-2011-camp-muir-rain-and-sun
Splitter
2011-01-24 06:23:13

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