Radiobeacon Peak's NE ramp 3/6/08

This snow alien told me to go up Radiobeacon Peak, so I complied.

After a mind workout with my SnowHydrology midterm, I felt ready to get after it with a physical workout. Headed up to E Portal, planning to ski the "frosty bowl" off the divide near Arapaho Lakes. Left the TH at 2 and managed to get through the strong winds and into the trees. Saw an older lady on fat skis with two twin dogs. She confirmed my beliefs by saying "the snow is freakin awesome!" then she added that it wasn't too windy, but defnitley a few degrees colder up high.Sepia Aspens

There was no trail up to the frosty bowl, and didn't feel like breaking a one time skin track through knee deep snow, so I followed the Forest Lakes track up. A snow alien told me I should go up onto Radiobeacon, and check out its NE ramp, so I did.My ascent route

The conditions were full on scottish, with sustained winds of 30 mph or so, and I took a temp at ~treeline that read -17 C, or about 1 F. Thats a wind chill of about -26 F, and I could feel my eyelids start to freeze when I blinked. My camera froze, and I had to force the zoom lens closed.
There was 20-30 cm new snow on a slick high density layer on the NE ramp, with a thin slab forming. The new snow was not very well bonded to the old. Luckily, it wasn't cohesive enough to propagate a fracture, and the slope is only 30 deg. An awesome bowl to scribe some turns, especially on a nice day when you get to see them! I witnessed a sunset below the cloud ceiling on Winter Park, then headed off. Got to the truck at dusk.My descent, the NE ramp

At the TH I saw a rando racer gearing up with a red one piece, and ultralight AT setup, a helmet, and a headlamp. It was going to be a cold one for him.