Snow Observations List

Went for a tour up to Blackmore today. We observed a few natural slides that released in the past few days. Most had relatively small crowns being 1foot, with crowns around 50 foot and ran short distances. We observed a rather large crown near the Blackmore summer trail just below the saddle that also released naturally and looked to have up to a 4 foot crown.

Went for a walk on skis in the low-elevation meadows below Blackmore and Elephant Mountain. Observed roller balls and snow glopping to our skins. Dug on a small NE facing test slope at 7760'. HS 48cm, ECTN12 & CT10 Q3 up 27cm on what looked like an old layer of buried surface hoar. A nice day for a low angle walk. 

Similar to your complete ripout of the slope at the head of first yellow mule, this aspect pulled out naturally likely on the 25th - natural caused. No tracks around.

South of two top north west of trail intersection #20. (saturday 1/27)

rode low angle stuff all day, creek bottom is normally not visible and its down to dirt. The whole area (south of two top) seemed really shallow and west facing slopes were very windswept when exposed, but filled in down low.

We found that the weak layers are all over the place after the warm weather and rain. Super faceted snowpack everywhere we went and even in low angle trees you could stick your hand in next to where a snowmobile track was and break a slab off. When rolling sleds over on a small hill we broke off lots of big 3' x 3' chunks down to the old really deep  weak layer.

We did not see any avalanches.

From IG message 1/26/24: "2nd yellowmule. Main north facing ridge. Whole thing ripped out. Appears like yesterday, but unsure. Massive slide."

Toured up Republic Creek, skied both East and west facing. Dug three pits, two west facing, one east facing.  Similar results on all three.

Pit 1 W facing 8750

Hs 84 f

75 4f

63 1f

50f  ECTP 14

404f

20 crust

4f to f below crust

Pit 2 WNW facing 9750

HS 115

ECTP 11 @ 78CM.  January storm slab to December facets 1f to f

Pit 3 E facing 8500

HS 90

ECTP 10 60CM St January storm slab to December facets 1f to f

Slide right off groomed trail near Chimney Rock 

Looks like a natural slide on the SW face of Crown Butte/ Bull of the Woods pass. Spoke with some skiers that thought it slide morning of 01/25/2024.

Couple days old [1/23 or 24]. Better light on it today. S aspect. 9800'

19° at 11:00 a.m. under overcast skies but warmed up when the sun came out. 

(Photos by T. Parrie)

Rode along Lionhead Ridge from Denny Creek to Watkins Creek and around into the head of Targhee Creek. Saw dozens of avalanches that broke within the last week. Most of the slides looked to have broken early this week with a couple looking like they broke in the last 24 hours. Slides broke on all aspects, both above treeline and well below treeline, and on both wind-loaded and nonwind-loaded slopes. Some looked to be naturals and some looked to have been rider triggered. One of the slides in Watkins Creek broke across three avalanche paths/gully features and was one of the larger slides we've seen this season, looking to have piled up debris 10+ ft deep. All these slides looked to have broken on one of the December surface hoar layers at the top of the early season facets.

Dug a pit adjacent to one of the slides in Targhee Creek and got an ECTP13 on the lower of two well defined surface hoar layers. 

Riding today it was quite dramatic how much stiffer the slab is than it was the 10 days ago. Instead of just trenching through the whole snowpack you now mostly ride on top until you dramatically break though. We got a couple of shooting cracks while approaching our snowpit site, but they were not nearly as dramatic as the cracks last week. 

Skier triggered several small avalanches while skiing near the zimmer creek yurt and observed a large natural avalanche on Sheep Mountain.

From email: "

 I did not get a good photo but yesterday (01/24) skiing out of the yurt with friends noticed a large natural on the NorthEast facing bowl on Sheep Mountain. Similar size to the Henderson slide if not a little larger. 

~300 ft. crown and ran a similar distance (300-400ft?) 

Also remote triggered a few D1 avalanches over the past 2 days. Continous cracking/collapsing even in a day old skin track. "

From email: "Photo of a recent slide observed today, north of Cooke.  East aspect, 9k'.

We also remotely triggered a different, small avalanche today from safe terrain while eating our lunch!

And had an ECTP3 and ECTV on the Jan. 5th interface (30cms down), also on easterly aspects.

Widespread collapsing today too."

I did not stick around long enough to investigate the slide so I apologize for the lack of information, but figured I'd share the photos. The location is the knoll under the Saddle Peak cliff that can be accessed by traversing through the southern boundary gate from Bridger Bowl. The slide propagated on a NE aspect going into a gully. The crown looked to be 1-2 feet tall with an approximate width of 30 feet. There are numerous tracks that go in and out of the slide path, but could not tell if it was triggered by a skier. A friend who I was with said that the slide had not been there the day before. 

From email: "A friend and I were riding in lower Tepee today, staying on low angle terrain because of the current avalanche conditions. When side hilling on a 24 degree slope, I saw cracks shoot out approximately 100 feet around me. It was a smaller slope, but things are still pretty sensitive. This was a north facing slope in a valley that shouldn’t have been too wind loaded. "

Dug on an E (105deg) slope at 9600 feet on Mt. Blackmore. This was a quick pit not a full profile.

SKY: SCT Wind: L variable 

HS 95cm

ECTN15 down 40cm on 1-2mm facets.

Snow above facets was mostly 4F to 4F+. While there was no propagation observed in the pit, the structure was quite poor. Additional stiffening of the slab and/or loading in the future could likely easily increase the propagation propensity. 

approx. 3-4+mm facets down 60cm were also worth noting.

Recent wind effect was evident on lee slopes. 

We had predetermined that avalanche terrain was "closed" for the day as we were just out collecting info/obs and skied low angle slopes and the rather spicy re-frozen skin track out.

Toured from the M to Bridger Bowl. Conditions varied from windswept ridge line to wind slab, to soft snow. Often times the W side of the ridge was completely windswept while the E side had a cornice.  Cornices were all small in size. I found once pocket of snow on the W side that collapsed under me, and shot cracks above and in front of me, causing me to back out and move higher in the cliff band to continue my traverse. No other avalanche activity noted, and the slide on Saddle wasn't apparent from my vantage.

We rode into Tepee Basin today to practice rescue skills with snow rangers from different districts across the Custer-Gallatin Forest. On top of a great day riding and practicing rescue skills we saw a natural avalanche above the first meadow of Tepee. This avalanche is old and likely happened a few days ago near the end of the last storm on 01/20. NE facing slope at ~8500 feet. 

There is plenty of snow on the ground to practice rescue. Now is as good of a time as any to get out and practice your skills! 

20ft diameter collapse on shallow slope, 25-30 inch snowpack, bottom 10inches to ground rotten and ball bearing like. 
 

Shooting crack in a gulley, evidence of previous avalanche present in same gulley 

20ft diameter collapse on shallow slope, 25-30 inch snowpack, bottom 10inches to ground rotten and ball bearing like. 
 

Shooting crack in a gulley, evidence of previous avalanche present in same gulley