Windy day in the Bullmoose

<p>Great day in Bullmoose today for an AST1 course, this season is off to a great start! The new storm snow of the last few days has not bonded well to the previous layers, and we saw significant drifting and the snow was building wind slabs everywhere it could reach. We dug a pit in a sheltered area below Treeline, and had very easy reactions at 15 cm down, and moderate reactions 50 cm down, both on storm snow interfaces. We were being extremely cautious and evaluated the avalanche hazard as high for the day. We saw an endless amount of shooting cracks anywhere not completely sheltered, and we popped small pockets and triggered little features in the creek bottoms consistently on the 15 cm and sometimes even the 50 cm layer (on steeper small features) Weather was warm and stormy, temps zero or above for the whole day. We’ve got a fantastic base now when this sets up and consolidates, and we’re eagerly waiting for new snow!</p>

Terrain Ridden

Dense trees, Mellow slopes, Open trees.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes, Convex slopes, Steep slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.

Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Rapid temperature rise to near zero degrees or wet surface snow.

Snow Conditions

Deep powder, Powder, Wind affected.

Weather Conditions

Cloudy, Stormy, Warm, Windy.