AST1 - Cloud Nine Guides - Bow Summit

<p>Hey All, Cloud Nine was out for its first AST1 of the season at Bow Summit Last weekend. Thought we’d pass on some conditions. First day out on skis, so took it pretty easy, focusing on trying to calibrate and gather a good density of observations. Stormy day with ~20cm HN, and consistent west wind at 25km/hr gusting to 40. Lots of (snow) transport all day. Overcast and temps -2 cooling to -8 through the day. Without much direct observations gathered yet this season and the weather as it was, we stayed away from large, steep, lee, and convex features, instead looking to gather snowpack info on a variety of smaller unexposed features. No signs of instability where we traveled (surprisingly) but I’m sure we could have found it if we’d gone looking in areas with recent wind loading. 3 Test Profiles dug by our Guides and Students produced varying results, but generally speaking there was limited strength at the crusts in the lower snowpack. Stability tests produced easy and sudden results both at the crust (down 40cm) and on the ground at 90cm. CTE2 - Down 40 - SC / On the crust CTE5 - Down 90 - SC / At ground Profile Details: 30 degrees/ E Aspect / ~2200m / Lee feature at treeline. Going to be a few more weeks of calibrating conditions for us before we start thinking of stepping out into anything more complicated. Have fun out there, and see ya next weekend! Mike Trehearne (IFMGA) Jacob Dans (ACMG) Nino Guagliano (AMGA) Cloud Nine Guides </p>

Terrain Ridden

Mellow slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes, Steep slopes, Convex slopes.

Snow Conditions

Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Stormy, Windy, Cloudy.