Island Alpine Guides AST1 and Backcountry Tour

Quick report

Weather

sunny

Ride Type

convexSlopes, openTrees, steepSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

powder, windAffected

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSnow

Beautiful day for AST courses and a backcountry tour. Riding was quite nice in places sheltered from the wind and high enough in elevation that the previous warming did not settle the snow too much. Skied from about 1100m to 1500m and found up to 20cm ski penetration. Surface faceting overnight improved ski quality.

Snowpack

Depth

240

Obs Type

summary

Site Aspect

N, NE, NW, SW

Ski Penetration

15

Test Initiation

moderate

Site Elevation Band

btl, tln

Surface Conditions

crust, facets, newSnow

At 1400 m, NE facing, 48 HN sitting on various crust layers, CTE9 down 13 cm on graupel. CTH21, down 28cm clean shear, on precipitation particles. CTH22 down 48 on laminated crust. Surface hoar and facets on surface Hazard rating below tree line for areas skied: Low Tree line: perhaps Moderate though no avalanches were triggered and wind loaded convexities to 40+ degrees were skied. Warming followed by cooling seems to have locked things down at these elevations though likely the alpine is a different story with skier triggerable storm slabs remaining.

Avalanche

Slab Width

10

Trigger Type

natural

Wind Exposure

leeSlope

Avalanche Size

1

Slab Thickness

40

Start Zone Aspect

N

Avalanche Character

stormSlab

Number Of Avalanches

2-5

Start Zone Elevation

1400

Avalanche Observation

12to24hrsAgo

Start Zone Elevation Band

tln

Avalanche Occurrence Datetime

2024-12-15T21:00:00.000Z