From IG message: "I was at the bottom of the Gardner Headwall when that avalanche happened. Feel free to share..."
Toured into Beehive Basin today. The added snow from the storm this week made quite a difference in coverage (which was already still really good) and it looks like the middle of winter up there. Temps were warm and the snowpack felt homogenous and stable. Planned to ski peak 10602 but we noticed some wind loading and weather coming in so we toured up and around climbers left of the prow and skied down the climbers right side of it. Skinning in we saw a lot of wet loose avalanche debris and a couple slides that looked like they slid a couple days ago from the last storm. We heard multiple slides coming off of rocks and watched a cornice break off climbers left of 4th of July Couloir. We also saw some wet loose debris that slid on 10602 on our way out of the basin. By 10am it was very warm and the snow was wet, sticky and heavy.
From obs 5/23/24: "shooting cracks in the top 4 to 5 inches of new snow in middle basin" Photo: N. Greiner
From obs 5/23/24: "Toured to the top of PK during today’s storm. Snow was very wet and heavy. We saw no other slides or signs of instability on the way up. Coming down skiers right of flippers, all 3 of us caused small slides and cracking within the new snow. I triggered the largest slide, which was 6-8” deep and 12’ wide." Photo: T. Jordan
From obs 5/18/24: "Wet snow avalanche at around 9300’ on a northwest aspect in Hyalite basin. Group opinions on crown height ranged from 1-5 feet - hard to tell from a distance." Photo: A. Kautzer
From obs 5/18/24: "Wet snow avalanche at around 9300’ on a northwest aspect in Hyalite basin. Group opinions on crown height ranged from 1-5 feet - hard to tell from a distance." Photo: A. Kautzer
Wet snow avalanche at around 9300’ on a northwest aspect in Hyalite basin. Group opinions on crown height ranged from 1-5 feet - hard to tell from a distance.
Saw a very large crown on a north face of a peak west of the hyalite area. Potentially peak 9662. The crown appears to wrap around multiple aspects for about 1/4 mile. Seen from the Bridgers around noon on May 4th. Probably went during this weeks storm, but it looks to me like it was much deeper than a storm slab.
From obs.: “Our party (3) triggered a significant wet loose slide on the fin today. I, the first skier dropped in next to existing tracks from earlier in the morning. I made a couple of small turns in unskied snow to test it and decided that not much was moving. As I continued down the wet surface snow started to slide and accumulate. My partner called me on the radio to tell me a lot of snow was moving behind me and I cut left. I traversed hard to lower angle terrain until I felt I could safely descend the rest of the slope. My partners descended the bed surface until they could traverse out.
We made several key mistakes today. We knew it would be warm and that we should be up and down early. We left later than planned, moved slower than expected and failed to adjust our plan. We mistook lack of wet loose activity on similar aspects and elevations on features we could see as sign of stability. We failed to make a plan B or establish a turnaround time. We interpreted a party ahead of us that skied the slope as a go ahead. Another party approaching behind us added pressure to go. They also skied the slope after us in similar style to my partners.
In our favor, we communicated well, radios were key, stayed calm and we managed ourselves through the situation. I feel humbled and lucky to have gotten away with a free lesson. One that I didn't think I should have needed.”
On 5/4/24 Skiers triggered large wet loose slides on the Fin near Cooke City
