Heavy pow at the avalanche ranch

<p>Full of stoke for the return of pow days, we headed up to Beadnell to get a sense of storm snow amounts and reactivity. Evidence of natural avalanche activity was all over the place. Copious but certainly not all steep slopes had released in the past day or so with a mix of shallow (20cm) and deeper crowns all the way down to the crust (40+cm) Snowpack tests revealed instability really easily too. Shovel shear tests showed it the best. It began to rain at about 1:20pm, making machines work really hard in the moist upper layer of new snow. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Mellow slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes, Convex slopes, Steep slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

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

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

Snow Conditions

Deep powder, Heavy, Wet.

Weather Conditions

Cloudy, Foggy, Warm, Wet.