Beaver Creek

<p>Gorgeous day in Beaver Creek Sunday! Went in all the way to the lake and the back meadows. Decent powder in the trees, less so on open slopes. Very sunny and warm, lots of small slides on steep, sun-facing slopes, especially in thin snowpack. Small slide totally covered the trail before the power line. Snow on north facing slopes was solid and bombproof. We dug a pit at 1400 meters on a NE aspect slope around 30 degrees, in some open trees. 240 cm HS, very dense and uniform down past 120 cm. Compression test CTH30 down 60 cm on a slab interface failed (barely) RP on FC below the slab interface. The Jan 15 layer was down about 130 cm, and was actually 3 ice layers sandwiched in about 5 cm. Small FC between and below the ice layers. Snow surface was wet in the sun, but stayed below 0 in the shade. 10 cm temp was -8, and the whole snowpack down to 130 cm was -7 to -8. Very solid, but as it warms up that will change.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Mellow slopes, Dense trees, Steep slopes, Open trees.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes, Sunny slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

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

Snow Conditions

Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Warm, Sunny.