Northern Gallatin

Today we skied on north-facing aspects in the basin southwest of Blakcmore Lake. Snow started falling around noon and, by 1pm, it increased to approximately 1in/ hour. We tested the snow on northern aspect at ~9250ft. We observed an HS of 188cm (see attached snowpilot for hardness). At this location the snow has stayed well protected from recent wind loading and warmer temps, and the layer underlying the new snow showed no signs of propagation (ECTN22 @145cm). We did observe, however, a moderate shovel shear with a Q2 shear on this same layer. With the rapidly changing weather, we avoided wind loaded slopes for the day and will be carefully watching the conditions as the snow falls. 

Two skiers came across a natural avalanche while touring on the southeast side of Arden peak seen from Maid of the Mist basin. The avalanche appeared to be around 100 feet wide at the crown and ran all the way down the bowl until things flattened out -- maybe 700 feet. The avalanche appeared to be maybe a foot deep at the crown, appeared to have broken on a wind slab on the fresh snow. We dug a hasty pit that showed weakness on that same layer of new snow around 10-12 inches deep at the interface with the previous layer. We were planning to ski the Pinner on the north east side Arden peak, but upon seeing evidence of instability we scaled back our objective and skied Maiden bowl. 

This is the slope that avalanched and killed a snow bike rider (motorized) on 2/19/22. Photo is from the Search and Rescue team who were leaving the site as it was getting dark, and did not have time to gather more info. Click link below for more details. Photo: B. Zavora