Northern Gallatin

We rode portal creek meadows as an exploratory mission as neither Kyle Marvinney nor myself had ventured there much. New snow from the previous storm cycle had settled to about 4 inches, but it was hard to tell due to widespread wind effect. Judging from the snow, temps up there have mostly stayed below freezing during this previous warm cycle (after Monday/Tuesday storm), though there is fairly supportable crust below the storm layer. winds were blowing consistently 10mph up high gusting to and estimated 25mph. We observed one small avalanche in the riding area that occurred before the recent storm cycle and seemed characteristic of other similarly sized avalanches we have been observing throughout the season.

Skiing some dog pow across Hyalite reservoir between 7200-7800’ on a NE pitch I got lots of whumphs and shooting cracks while braking trail. This was a shallower snowpack than most other areas, it was still easy to break into basil facets with skis on.

Skiing some dog pow across Hyalite reservoir between 7200-7800’ on a NE pitch I got lots of whumphs and shooting cracks while braking trail. This was a shallower snowpack than most other areas, it was still easy to break into basil facets with skis on.

Skiing some dog pow across Hyalite reservoir between 7200-7800’ on a NE pitch I got lots of whumphs and shooting cracks while braking trail. This was a shallower snowpack than most other areas, it was still easy to break into basil facets with skis on.

From IG: This avalanche was from this morning (02/28). It was windy and the gully was likely wind-loaded. One video shows the debris and crown. The pin on the map (below) shows the location of the debris.

From IG: This avalanche was from this morning (02/28). It was windy and the gully was likely wind-loaded. One video shows the debris and crown. The pin on the map (below) shows the location of the debris.