Wet loose snow avalanches of recent 6" of snow. They likely occurred when the sun came out Wednesday morning, or at the end of the storm on Tuesday. GNFAC
5/3/22 at approximately 4:00pm a storm slab avalanche occurred in beehive basin on a west aspect @9000 ft. This slab was 6-8” deep and propagated around 50’. No one was buried, however we aren’t sure if anyone was caught because we were not the party who triggered this avalanche. We did witness the party drop in but quick went out of sight.
"5/3/22 at approximately 4:00pm a storm slab avalanche occurred in beehive basin on a west aspect @9000 ft. This slab was 6-8” deep and propagated around 50’. No one was buried, however we aren’t sure if anyone was caught because we were not the party who triggered this avalanche. We did witness the party drop in but quick went out of sight." Photo: H. Bigos-Lowe
From obs 5/1/22: "This morning we toured south of Flathead Pass to check out the conditions. We noticed on our way up that the freezing line was ~7500 ft. The punchy and wet surface crust became quite supportive and icy at this altitude. We dug a pit at ~7900ft on a NE aspect. At this location, the overnight snow totaled only 2cm but we observed more significant wind deposition in and around the trees of about 10cm. Our shovel shear tests resulted in an easy shear at 120cm and hard shear (Q1) at 90cm.
From 4/30/22: "...there were several wet loose avalanches at Bridger today. Some with ~5cm of snow on top, maybe from yesterday or earlier in the week, and some new this morning. We watched a relatively slow moving natural size 2 come down Colter's area around 10:30. We also ski cut a size 1.5 from the skiers right of the Lower Nose (NE asp) around 9:45 which ran on the melt freeze crust from earlier this week. It moved slowly but I was surprised by how much mass it entrained. A couple other ski cuts just above had produced smaller size 1s.
Recent wet storm with overnight freeze produced a crust up to 8,000’ +\-…above that was dense but soft snow atop a thin snowpack (50cm)
Experienced collapsing and shooting cracks of wind loaded snow near the ridge of Shafthouse Hill.
Loose snow avalanches on sun affected steep terrain
A pair of skiers ski cut the main chute of Avalanche Gulch. It propagated widely and ran approximately 800' vertical.
A group skied Manman's and triggered the upper chute. When the initial avalanche hit the fan the slide propagated wider and ran "Well past the North Bowl Road"
Skiers reported shooting cracks from their skis while ascending the terrain at Bridger Bowl. The group later remotely triggered an avalanche from 100'+ away that ran through the "Pearly Gates" and "Patrol Chute".
