Northern Gallatin

Observed active windloading on the eastern side of Lick Creek today.

12-18 inch slab broke easily when ski cut and a small but very reactive cornice was rapidly building.

There was 6" of new snow in Hyalite Canyon with increasing winds throughout the day. Our primary concern is avalanches within the new and wind-drifted snow. Photo: GNFAC

Snow pack of 108cm on a 25 NE facing slope at 9,625'

Observed CT11 Q2 at new/old interface, 93cm, as well as an ECTN13 Q2 on what we believe to be a buried layer of surface hoar at 26cm. Also had some warming of the surface.

With the poor pit performance we decided to not ascend to the ridge and ski the intermediate terrain in the cirque, then out the drainage.

I toured in Lick Creek yesterday and thought I'd share a few things we noticed. Hopefully they are helpful observations!

While the skin track was still relatively flat and cutting through sloping meadows, we noticed a small sun crust on a southern aspect. 

As we skinned through the front side skiing zone, we noticed evidence of wind affected snow. We found some strong layers that sounded hollow, sometimes underneath ~2 inches of snow. As we gained the ridgeline, the wind slab became more obvious. It cracked under my weight, but I didn't see any shooting cracks or distinct collapses.

At the saddle between the front and backside of Lick Creek we found 110cm of snow with very dense windslabs. These were firm and cohesive, with the firmest being between 100 and 90cm. Our layer of most concern was at 65cm but was difficult to impact and we felt confident our weight alone even in shallow areas would not impact this layer, we skied the front side however due to time constraints. 

Experienced no signs of snow instabilities.  Ellis has apparently seen limited amount of wind as only scattered signs of drifting were noted.  SW Montana faceted snow exist at the ground with the snow above in a right side up configuration.  The skiing was excellent, some of the steeper lines were skied and only minor surface sluffes were initiated.