Photos

Skiers on Mount Blackmore observed cracking within the freshly wind-loaded snow on a southeast-facing slope just below the ridge (11/24/21). Photo: J Schack

This powder cloud from a large avalanche was seen on Black Mountain, up Pine Creek outside Livingston. Located outside our advisory area it is a sign of unstable snow, likely from wind-loading, that can be found throughout southwest Montana. Photo: Anon

Skiers found a shallow snowpack and very windy conditions today. Snow was moving and loading slopes. Photo: H. Darby

From an obsevation: Skied up towards Arrowhead Bowl from Fairy Lake road. Snowpack is still very thin in the trees as you ascend towards the ridge. Strong westerly winds and exposed rocks deterred us from skiing the bowl itself. Down low we found variable conditions ranging from a few cm of graupel to a few cm of windboard and ice in places. We dug a pit at 8140 feet, 143º SE. The snowpack is 55 cm deep with a very distinct knife hard crust layer from 0-20cm above the ground, we were thinking that could be due to a rain on snow event that fell on top of the October snow. There is also a distinct knife crust 40 cm above the ground with new snow/wind blown snow on top of that. Weather today was mostly clear with a few scattered clouds and consistent winds, with very strong gusts from the west. Photo: H. Darby

The snow was breaking 1 foot off the ground in the layer at the blue crystal card. Weak, sugary snow broke and propagated in the extended column test with 18 and 21 taps. We anticipate this weakness to get worse in the coming weeks. Photo: GNFAC

There was almost 2 feet of snow (60 cm) at 8800' on NE aspect of Sawtelle Peak. Weak snow (facets) is forming a foot off the ground and were breaking consistently in stability tests. Photo: GNFAC

Snowcover on Lionhead ridge begins at about 7,000' in elevation on 11/16. Snowmobiling or skiing from Targhee Pass looks very thin and patchy. Photo: GNFAC

Taken on 11/16, consistent snow on all aspects begins around 7,000 feet. 1.5-2 feet of snow is found above 8.500'. Photo: GNFAC

From e-mail 11/15/21: "east Henderson had a fresh slab avalanche- on a NE aspect around 10,000'.  It appeared to have failed on a weak layer near the ground, and I'd guess it was about 2-3' deep and 300'+ wide." Photo: B. Fredlund

From obs 11/11/21: "Dug a snow pit at 8,280ft adjacent to a chute. It was NW aspect. We found a ~35cm 1 finger windslab sitting on top of a ~25cm knife hard slab. We got CT 12 on the first slab and CT 15 on the deeper slab. On the ECT, we got a slight fracture at 15 taps and a full fracture at 17 (ECTP+2). This layer seemed to be on all aspects we looked at above tree line on NW faces. Bellow treeline, the snowpack was shallower and seem to lack these slabs." Photo: J. Krause

Snow cover on the southern end of the Bridger Range on 11/11/21. Photo: T. Tumolo

From e-mail 11/10/21: "an east aspect around 9900'.  HS 63cms.  ECTV on facets at 19cms." In this snowpit the slab collapsed above the weak layer when the observer isolated the column to perform an extended column test (ECT), hence the score ECTV (ECT-very easily collapsed and propagated). Photo: B. Fredlund

From email 11/10: "Wind effect: significant in most upper elevation exposed locations.  Westerly winds were moving a lot of snow off the high peaks all day today." Photo: B. Fredlund

A natural avalanche on Saddle Peak on 11/10/21. Strong winds drifted recent snow into thick slabs near the ridge. This slide was probably one of those wind slabs breaking and/or being triggered by a cornice fall. Photo: P. Hinz

From e-mail 11/7/21: "...Once in airplane bowl we saw multiple large slides that ran last night, syn-storm. Most of which came down from the East face of Sac. A few 200-300’ wide and running the length of the bowl.,,, attached is a grainy cell phone pic of the slides in Airplane Bowl." -Anonymous.

From email 11/4/21: "...noticed two small wet loose avalanches in the east facing bowl between Pomp and Hardscrabble Peaks." Photo: H. Darby

From e-mail 11/4/21: "Hiking up in the Bridger Range from Sacagawea Pass and noticed no faceting of the current snowpack. The snow near the pass and on the ridge is very wind affected as is to be expected and dropping into the bowl on the east side of the Pass the snowpack there has a distinct sun crust. Dug around a little bit at 8600 ft on a NE aspect and found a sun crust of about two inches with what felt like rounded grains below that. Even in the direct sun, the crust was taking a long time to rewarm and was pretty slippery..." Photo: H. Darby

Snow at the base of Bridger Bowl on the evening of October 11th. Photo: B. VandenBos

This huge avalanche occurred Friday June 4, 2021 near Beartooth Basin ski area, above Twin Lakes on Beartooth Pass. Multiple days of exceptionally warm temperatures followed by rain caused a large cornice to break and trigger the nearly 10' deep wet slab. Photo: A. Hart

This huge avalanche occurred Friday June 4, 2021 near Beartooth Basin ski area, above Twin Lakes on Beartooth Pass. Multiple days of exceptionally warm temperatures followed by rain caused a large cornice to break and trigger the nearly 10' deep wet slab. A reminder to stay diligent with safe travel protocols and snow stability assessments, and minimize time spent below cornices. Photo: A. Hart