New Years at Middle Creek

<p>Went into Middle Creek from December 30-January 1. I don't really know the names of the areas so I attached a map with the approx locations of the areas we skied. Dec30: -15 coming in at valley bottom, sunny and clear with strong winds at ridge top that appeared to be coming from the W. Light fluffy dust on crust skied well. Down to -18 at cabin with thin scattered clouds hanging around the valley overnight. Dec31: -15 at cabin, mostly clear and cold with nil for wind all day. Skied a N aspect at tree line with no results, though there were previous sluffs on the NE/E aspects, likely from the last snowfall and/or strong winds. Skied a S aspect in the sun below tree line, approx 30cm dust on crust, with sluffing. There was no wind effect observed until approaching the ridge top for cabin run. Skied the WNW aspect for "cabin run" with very minor breakable wind crust dropping over the ridge, into hardpack, into pockets of minor wind crust and nice snow. Noticeable 0.5-1cm facets below and above treeline-glitter snow galore! Jan1: Obs 1230pm at 1245m on W aspect. HS of 167cm. Obscured sky with light snow <1cm/hour. Wind was light from the SW and there was light, isolated periods of blowing snow. 3cm storm snow overnight with noticeable wind transport on W/NW aspects we skinned up with a minor 1cm wind crust forming in more open areas. Surface grain was mostly rounded and fragmental at 2-5mm. Ski pen 20cm, foot pen 40 cm. Air temp was -3.5, ground temp -4, snow temp @10cm -7. There was a noticeable hard crust at 35cm when probing. Skiing back down from the cabin where temp was -4.5 when I left at 130pm, visibility remained good at valley bottom with flat light and consistently snowing very lightly. By the time I reached the vehicle it was misting lightly, with temp at -8.</p>