24-25

Photo: H Darby

Photo: H Darby

Photo: H Darby

We toured into Beehive Basin today and managed to get eyes on aspects throughout Beehive, Bear, and S Fork Spanish Creek Basins. We found excellent turns in spots, variable conditions in others, and a whole lot of rocks still exposed. Gorgeous, clear skies lent themselves to good visibility. Temps were cold at the trailhead but warmed quickly. Winds were predominantly from the South, gusting strong and moving snow around at ridgetops and summits. 

Winds seem have impacted upper elevations; low to mid elevations still held soft snow. Outside of true north-facing aspects, most other aspects have seen some wind effect and were in quite variable condition. In the hand pits I dug on several different aspects, I noted light snow atop either sun crusts or wind-blown layers, all with small but well-developed facets underneath. Gullies hold close to a meter of snow but generally, coverage seemed to be around half a meter in depth. 

Slab formation was limited to upper elevation ridgelines and little pockets in couloirs. Generally very few signs of instability were seen beyond one small (R1 D1) wind slab avalanche that came down from a rocky, exposed part of the ridgeline into Bear Basin. No surface hoar was noted anywhere. All in all, a lovely day to spend in the Spanish Peaks! 

We rode to the Taylor Fork weather station and along the edge of meadows in upper Sage creek. Two snowpits and video attached. Dug one in Sunlight Basin on ESE aspect (near weather station) and one in Sage Creek on NE aspect. ECTNs and ECTX test results.

While riding across Sage Basin we found surface hoar buried 4" deep in most handpits and in our snopwpit, and otherwise 1-2mm facets existed at the same depth.

Snow depth was fairly consistently 2 feet. Trail was thin, but soft and not too bumpy yet.

Wind was light to moderate with some strong gusts near the weather station. Very light snow was falling midday. Mostly cloudy with a few shots of blue sky.

I saw one small old wind slab on a heavily wind loaded short slope at the end of the trail.

Snow stability was good today, but the weak layers near the surface could change that quick depending on how much snow falls this weekend.

Toured up Blackmore via the south ridge this morning. Winds overnight drifted snow over old tracks and skin  tracks around the area. Once on the ridge, I noticed active wind loading on eastern aspects as well as cornices growing along ridge lines.