Trip Planning for Island Park

The GNFAC weather station at the top of Sawtelle provides wind, temperature and relative humidity information for forecasting (when it's not covered in a foot of rime ice. Photo: GNFAC

Photo: GNFAC

From the top of Sawtelle. Photo: GNFAC

Riders in the Centennial Mountains experienced almost constant whumphing at higher elevation and saw a couple of days old avalanche on a windl-oaded east north east facing slope. Photo: R. Gravett

Ice crust on trees from freezing rain last Saturday Dec 28 now covered by rime ice.

From obs on 12/29: "On our way out near the cabin I cut a line close to a creek to see if I could trigger something."

From obs on 12/29: "On our way out near the cabin I cut a line close to a creek to see if I could trigger something."

Thick and robust ice crust layer widespread above white elephant.  Photo: Ride Rasmussen Style 

Plumes of drifting snow in the Bridger Range as strong winds blasted the mountains. Photo: GNFAC

De-rimed Sawtell anemometer

Rock Creek natural avalanche

NE facing IP snowpit

E facing IP snowpit 

From IG: On 12/15 "Storm slab broke about 200’ above us as skinning up the hallway coming from the north side on the throne." Photo: Anonymous

Small windslab triggered on approach for inspection. Failure interface had 5 mm Surface Hoar. Soft slab, remote propagation onto the adjacent slope. Debris covered about half of the road bed.

Photo: J Hambelton 

Small windslab triggered on approach for inspection. Failure interface had 5 mm Surface Hoar. Soft slab, remote propagation onto the adjacent slope. Debris covered about half of the road bed.

Photo: J Hambelton

Small windslab triggered on approach for inspection. Failure interface had 5 mm Surface Hoar. Soft slab, remote propagation onto the adjacent slope. Debris covered about half of the road bed.

Photo: J Hambelton

Gusty winds transporting snow in Taylor Fork on Saturday. Triggered a 4-5 inch deep wind slab that propagated about 50 ft at the top of a north east facing slope at 9,500 ft.

Photo: JP

We are grateful for our partnership with the Friends of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center. It is always a good time to get out in the field with our education coordinator, Shannon. Photo: GNFAC

The snow depth was 60-70 cm (2-2.5 feet) at the upper elevations of the Big Springs Loop around the Black Canyon area in Island Park. Photo: GNFAC

Surface hoar and near surface facets are now capped by this weekend's snow. The layers are buried 2-4" deep in the Black Canyon area of Island Park. Photo: GNFAC

WE facing snow at 8100 ft Cabin Ck

Cabin Creek snow cover

SE facing snow Cabin Creek

N facing snow Cabin Creek, 9000 ft

Big Sky Ski Patrol triggered this avalanche during mitigation work in The Wave on 11/26/24... "2-3' deep on an ice crust just above the ground with a 2# shot in the Upper rodeo. Volume was limited as most of the snow was loaded just underneath the cornice, but still produced a sizeable size 2... Other paths in the Lenin region ran meaty wind slabs, full track with no significant step downs." Photo: BSSP

Cracking on old, faceted, October snow hundreds of feet long. North facing near treeline. Photo: BSSP

Intentional, human-triggered avalanche by a ski patrol breaking at the ground on a north facing slope near treeline. Photo: BSSP

Sawtelle snowpack. Photo: GNFAC

Snowpit at Bridger Bowl on 11/5. Photo: B. VandenBos

From e-mail: "Photo attached from near top of hyalite peak, 11/2. Cracking in recent hard wind slab, I had to really jump hard to make this. Walked on many other hard slabs that were well bonded. Highly variable snowpack. I think you'd be most likely to get into trouble by popping out a small hard slab pocket like this and getting magic carpeted into some thinly covered terrain." Photo: B. VandenBos

From obs: "1-3 mm faceting in front of the Montage. Clear skys and mid 20 temps"

On October 17, rain turned to snow and blanketed the mountains of southwest Montana with a fresh coat of snow. Photo: Yellowstone Club Webcam

On October 17, rain turned to snow and blanketed the mountains of southwest Montana with a fresh coat of snow. Photo: Bridger Bowl Webcams

The 26th annual fundraiser for the Friends of the GNFAC is October 25 at the Emerson Cultural Center. More info and tickets at: https://events.eventgroove.com/event/Powder-Blast-2024-101627