Roster. The 2008 roster is available. It is on the web at laac-hat.com.

Health & Safety Vice Chair. This position is still open. Need a volunteer. Contact Steve Dodson.

Training & Workshops Vice Chair. Pete Matthews is the new V/C.

Climbing Instructor Training. Rose is currently teaching a class. Dodson will start one in March.

Climbing Wall. The new indoor climbing wall at Forest Lawn Scout Reservation is awesome! HAT team member and other instructors have been volunteering to run it during the winter season. Full body harnesses are being obtained for Cubs.

Climbing Instruction. Rose is preparing a detailed outline for climbing instructor training. The purpose is to consolidate the agenda so that each course instructor will teach the same course.

Conservation. Ledford reports activity has been severely hampered by the weather.

Trail Safety. The extreme weather has made trails dangerous. They are icy in places and narrow in steep places where there is a lot of snow. Scout Leaders are urged to exercise extreme caution.

Cross Country Skiing. Six students were signed up for the indoor session.

Ice Axe Field Exercise. Nine students from the 2005, 2006 and 2007 classes attended and had a great time in the deep powder snow. 

Snow Camping Field Trip. Six signed up so far.

LAAC HQ. Hatch reports the move will take place 29 March. The preceding two days will be occupied with packing. The following Monday will be unpacking and getting settled but open for business. The Scout shop will move on the same schedule. The dedication will be on Wednesday 30 April.

  Conservation. Ledford reports the damaged portions of Hwy 2 will be closed for a long time. It is currently open to Snowcrest. wwwThe April 19 CA Trails Day will be on the Sunset Ridge and Echo Mountain trails.

Adult Leader Backpack Training. Matthews distributed a summary of the evaluation sheets. Ratings were generally very good. Based on the comments some changes will be made for next year’s training.

Winter Camp field Experience. Cline reported it was a very successful outing – lots of snow and not too cold.

Climbing Instructor Training. Dodson will begin a course on Mar 25.

Quest. Dodson asked for a volunteer to be program director to for the 2008 program. He is looking for four advisers and wants at least two crews. Decision time for go/no go is April.

Philmont. 11 of 12 slots are filled for 2008. 18 of 24 slots are filled for 2009.

Log Cabin. Hatch is looking for ways to make more leaders aware of and interested in the program.

Mountain Oriented Accident Response. Course being cancelled for 2008 because we have no Health and Safety Vice Chair to run this program.

Online Course Registration and Payment. This would be a desirable feature and probably would increase attendance. All courses should be included. The Council webpage is the best place for this to be available. Currently, priorities are such that it is not being worked, but hopefully its turn will come in the near future.

  Dated February 1, 2008. “Know before you go” into the Snow. The fire danger level is lowered to “Moderate”.

       Winter conditions continue throughout the upper elevations of the San Gabriel Mountains, luring city dwellers to experience the snow firsthand. But Forest visitors are urged to plan their trips in advance and take along a few essential winter safety items such as tire chains, which may be required for passage. Also, those visiting the mountains should dress appropriately for winter weather and carry extra food, water and blankets in case you’re stranded.

       Visitors should expect heavy weekend traffic, particularly around Wrightwood and in the Mount Baldy area, with waits of up to two hours. In Big Pines, plowed snowdrifts are as high as 9 feet, preventing roadside parking for snow play. Cars blocking traffic, county or Forest roads are subject to towing. Developed snow play areas are available at resorts in Wrightwood and in the San Bernardino National Forest.

       “Know before you go” by calling a Forest Service office to check on the latest conditions for your destination. Following a few common sense guidelines will help ensure a safe trip to the mountains. Maintain a longer following distance while driving on slick or snow-covered roads and zip your car keys up in a pocket. If your keys are dropped in the snow, you’re in for a long day. Also, keep in mind cell phone coverage is very limited in the San Gabriel Mountains.

       Upper elevations of the Angeles National Forest have received over 50 inches of snow in the last two weeks. Substantial rain at the lower elevations has raised the moisture content of vegetation, prompting the fire danger level to be lowered to “Moderate” effective Monday Feb 4.

       The change in the fire danger level does not relax fire-related visitor use restrictions. Open campfires will still be permitted in developed campgrounds only. Gas, jellied or propane-type camp stoves are permitted in campgrounds and trail camps and in backcountry areas with a valid California Campfire Permit. Spark arrestors (required year-round) should be checked to make sure they are in good working order on all off-road vehicles, chain saws and other equipment with internal combustion engines.

       The “Moderate“ fire danger level is the second in a six level, graduated fire danger rating system. A variety of factors determine the level, including the moisture in the vegetation, weather conditions and nationwide firefighting equipment and personnel needs.

       The California Department of Transportation posts current road condition information for the Angeles Crest Highway (State Route 2) at 1-800-427-7623. Closures on the Angeles Forest Highway and other roads throughout the Angeles are posted on the Los Angeles County website at www.ladpw.org/mpm/roadclosure.

       For more information about winter recreation in the Angeles National Forest, contact the Forest Supervisor’s office at 626-574-5200 or the office nearest your destination.

  If you have followed this feature, you have completed three day hikes to local mountains and should be able to hike to any of thepeaks on the Mini-Peakbagger list. Just be careful to select those rated consistent with your level of fitness and experience.

  (This series of articles, begun in TrailHead 151, has completed discussion  of clouds and atmosphere as background for later discussion of weather forecasting. We now move to weather prediction/forecasting.)

      To make a quick, uncomplicated weather forecast, look out the window. If the visibility is15 miles and there’s not a cloud in the sky, you can bet it’s not going to rain in the next half hour. So says William Bonner, an authority on forecasting with the University  Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. .

      But if just over the horizon, 45 miles away, there’s a squall line moving along at 40 mph, one hour from now you can get a lot of rain.

      Many people, especially in past centuries, studied clouds and winds and were sometimes able to say what  the next day’s weather would be like.

      But for good forecasts you need to look farther than over the horizon and you need to know more about the atmosphere than clouds and wind alone can tell.

      Bonner says that if you think in terms of how far you have to “see”  to forecast the weather, a view of most of North America is needed to say what’s likely tomorrow on the East Coast.

      To have any hope of a good forecast for three days from now, you need a view of the weather all over the Northern Hemisphere. A good five day forecast requires a view of the weather across the whole Earth.

      Technology such as weather radar or satellite pictures, expands the weather horizon. A radar set shows a squall line as much as 200 miles away and helps measure how fast and in what direction it’s moving. Satellites can show storms all over the world.

      New observational tools, such as Doppler radar and new satellites will make that view more detailed. But even the best view of worldwide weather doesn’t give enough information to make a sure prediction of tomorrow’s weather – there are too many things going on.

      Imagine that a storm heading our way is like a bowling ball heading down the alley for the pins. In a regular bowling lane, you could set up several sensors to measure the exact path and speed of the ball as it leaves the bowler’s hand and feed the data into a computer. Program in a few basic laws of physics written as mathematical equations and before the ball is halfway down the lane, the computer could say which pins are likely to be knocked down (note: likely, not exactly).

      But this is the weather bowling lane where the ball’s motion can change the lane itself, point it in a totally different direction. The ball can knock down pins three lanes over. And the ball can grow or shrink as it rolls along. How do you predict all that? And yet that is simple compared to what is needed for a weather forecast.

      Earlier in these articles we have looked at the building blocks of weather forecasting:

·         How the sun heats the earth unequally, forming warm and cold air masses

·         How air pressure differences cause winds

·         How the earth’s rotation and friction change the winds

·         How water’s phase changes add or take heat away from the air

All of these changes plus the possible interactions among them, go into making the weather. All are condensed into mathematical equations and programmed into weather forecasting computers. This complexity is part of the reason why forecasters even with global data and powerful computers, can produce only a few accurate forecasts for as far as seven days ahead.

      (In TrailHead 183 we will continue discussion on weather forecasting)

      Nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries are great because they can be recharged many times. However, they discharge rapidly when not in use so they need to be charged just before you want to use them. If this is a problem for you, try a new battery manufactured by Samsung and Sanyo. Called Eneloop batteries, they are available in AA and AAA sizes and have a very small leakage rate. In fact, after a year of non-use, a charged battery only drops to 85% of its fully charged state. Because of the low discharge rate, they are sold already charged. For more information and reviews, Google: Samsung eneloop batteries.

  Contours, Slope and Trail Profiles

      Topographic maps get their name from their portrayal of surface features, or topography. This vertical dimension is shown on maps through the use of contours, lines connecting points of equal elevation. Accurate interpretation of contours – indeed the ability to “see” landforms on the flat surface of a topo sheet – is essential to navigation. Developing this skill takes much study and practice.

       The first time you look at a topo map, the brown contour lines probably will have no more meaning than a bunch of spaghetti noodles placed randomly across a page. Look more closely, though, and some order emerges: lines are closer in some places, farther apart in others; most are light but some are darker; the lines seem to curve in particular patterns; in places, the lines form closed circles; and they never cross one another. Each of these observations reveals important aspects of contours.

      The first thing to understand about contours is that each line represents a certain elevation across the surface of the land. To help visualize this, think of a bathtub with items of different shapes and sizes placed in it. Now, imagine water being added to the tub: first one inch, then another and so forth. If you looked directly down on the scene from above, you’d see that the surface of the water formed patterns around the items and along the edges of the tub at each level. You’d notice that the water moves fast across surfaces that have gentle slopes, more slowly on surfaces that are steeper. As the water rises higher, individual items become isolated, surrounded by unbroken circles of water. If you took the time to trace the waterline at each successive level on a piece of paper, you’d have a topo map.

      With some basics established, some specific observations can be made.

·         Relatively straight, parallel contours indicate a smoothly sloping surface; irregular contours indicate a complex or broken surface.

·         Contours have a “V” shape up stream gullies and down ridges.

·         Other topographical features have characteristic patterns, for example, a peak is a closed contour, a convergence of contour lines indicate a cliff.

       (In the next issue we will begin discussion of, slope and trail profiles )