Northern Gallatin

Skied big Ellis this morning. The temperature inversion was still active but not as dramatic as yesterday. The snow in the warm zone, near the top, of the inversion was well bonded and clearly affected by warmer temps. It was snowing hard up there but coming down as graupel. In the cold zone of the inversion the new snow was extremely active. We were remote triggering every small slope we passed on the gully exit. We saw many naturals breaking on any large open slope in the gully. The snow on the cold side of the inversion was blower but not bonding well at all. Could be a very sketchy setup if you find your self skiing in avy terrain that stayed cold over the last few days. 

I went for a walk up the main fork of hyalite today and observed a very dirty snow surface from the strong SW winds. Photo: Anonymous

 The cornices are growing rather large from the recent wind. Photo: Anonymous

I went for a walk up the main fork of hyalite today and observed a very dirty snow surface from the strong SW winds, also the cornices are growing rather large from the recent wind

as the day progressed the snow surface became moist on any aspect that the sun kissed along with roller balls coming off rocky terrain 

The dry powder took a beating from the warm temps in the alpine 

We toured up Lick Creek today. The temp in the parking lot was 17*F, temps warmed as we climbed up out of the valley. At the top of the ridge at roughly 8450’ the temp was 45*F in the shade according to my zip o gauge thermometer on my back pack +/-. The snow was wet and heavy, ski quality was mediocre to poor. The conditions were stable with nothing moving and lots and lots of buried tracks. There was lots of glopping on the skins! It was quite a problem. The ski out was ok in the track but sticky elsewhere making making things somewhat challenging. Back at the parking lot at 3pm it was 15*F. The last 100’ to the car was cold powder.

I have never seen an inversion quite like that!

sorry no pics or video.

Thank you for the work you do!

I hope this is useful and not redundant.

Jon Goodman

We toured up Lick Creek today. The temp in the parking lot was 17*f  temperatures warmed as we climbed out of the valley. At the top of the ridge at 8450’ it was 45* +/- a little on the little thermometer on my pack. The snow was wet and heavy, ski quality was mediocre to poor. Things were stable with nothing moving. Lots of glopping on the skins! The ski out was ok in the track but sticky elsewhere making things somewhat challenging. Back at the parking lot at 3 pm it was 15*f. The last 100’ to the road was cold powder.
I have never seen an inversion quite like that!

Lots of wind transport filling in the skin track between laps and creating light reactive slabs ~5” deep in places (see photo) primarily out of the west but generally inconsistent in direction. Photo: E Kiesz