Northern Gallatin

I was up at divide yesterday (Sunday) to surf and rode the east divide shoulder , conditions were blower 

the storm came in hot ….1” per hr with a storm total yesterday when I took off at 12” in the basin 

any steep roll overs were sluffing naturally or when ridden over 

the storm slabs did not step down but we’re sliding on the new/old snow interface 

today I went back to divide and snowboarded and got up there early to beat the sun

it was hard to get a photo but pretty much the entire divide basin had slides on the storm snow what ran the entire length of the slopes…there were a few off divide pk proper 

each slide stared at the ridge from wind/ snow loading 

I took off at 1 today from the basin because everything was getting cooked and roller balls were starting and the snow quality was deteriorating 

From obs: "Southerly aspects had significant sluffing on the crust interface" Photo: M. Zia 

From obs: "Observed a D1.5 natural on the N side of Maid of the Mist, photo attached. Looked like the upper pocket slid, then triggered the lower slope. ~75m crown line on the lower slope, depth looked like between 20-40cm. Upper pocket, hard to tell with limited viz." Photo credit: M. Zia

Didn't get a good HN measurement, estimated ~25-30cm

S1 most of the day, our skin track was buried on the way out

Moderate winds, predominately westerly

Southerly aspects had significant sluffing on the crust interface

Storm snow <F, but subtly stiffening during the day

Observed a D1.5 natural on the N side of Maid of the Mist, photo attached. Looked like the upper pocket slid, then triggered the lower slope. ~75m crown line on the lower slope, depth looked like between 20-40cm. Upper pocket, hard to tell with limited viz

I toured to Divide today, with the intent of skiing the south face in glorious sunshine and powder. A pit at the base of the south face was a surprisingly shallow 125 cm. There was a thick 4-5 cm sun crust at 75-80 cm, and I got ECTP24 on a thin (~5 mm) layer of low-density facets overlying the crust. I’m kind of surprised it held up that well, considering I noticed snow moving out of that layer as I dug the pit. On the ski out, I noticed a loose, wet slide on an steep, sun-exposed aspect. 

Did a quick tour up Lick Creek this afternoon. Broken clouds, light to moderate wind near the summit, with intermittent snow showers. About 8-10" of fresh, fairly high density snow on the east side of the summit. Significantly less on the west facing slope.

I did a few hand pits on the east facing slope as I travelled back up to the top to explore the old/new interface. I suspect last night's storm started as rain below about 7800 ft, as there was a thin crust under the new snow below this elevation that I did not observe at the top. It was easy to hand shear the new snow off this layer where it existed.

Above about 7800 feet, I did not see this thin crust layer. The new snow seemed right side up and better bonded to the old surface.