Bow Summit Conditions

Like most places in BC/Alberta this week the skiing sounds pretty good at Bow Summit this week – read the full Public Mountain Conditions Report below:

Great turns today at Bow Summit on a very quiet Saturday.

We had overcast, calm conditions all day with temperatures between -5 and -3C. We found storm snow accumulations of 45-50cm this morning on a 190cm snowpack with steady light snowfall producing 5cm fresh by mid-afternoon.

Despite area reports of "upside down" snow, we found only isolated pockets of this with mostly excellent skiing on "right-side up" low density powder in sheltered areas below 2400m. At this elevation, wind effect began to become more obvious with some soft slabbing starting in isolated lee and crossloaded pockets, so we avoided these features and did not venture beyond treeline. Other than that, we saw no natural avalanche activity (though visibility was limited) or other signs of instabilities.  A test pit at 2400m (treeline) yielded a low-end moderate resistant planar shear down 30cm in the storm snow, and a very hard, resistant result down ~70cm where the old surface is still bonding with the wind effected new snow.

By day's end the road and most of the parking lot had had a visit by Mr. Plough.

Despite doing our best today, with only 3 parties out, there are still plenty of fresh tracks to be had!

Carl Johnston

AAG, RG

Nick Rapaich

ASG, AAG