Northern Gallatin

From Obs 1/23: "While on the ridgeline on the way up we triggered many small wind drifted pockets."

We skied into maid of the mist, dug a pit on a northwest facing slope at about 9800ft and found half the pack was facets. We got ECTP 21, and retooled. While on the ridge line on the way up we trigger many small wind drifted pockets.

Today we toured into the Divide Cirque. We observed multiple small loose dry avalanches that released from steep rocky terrain while approaching the cirque.

We found 35 cm of fresh snow and were surprised with multiple unstable pit results (ECTV, ECTP8) at 9450 feet on a SE aspect of Divide Peak. 11 other skiers had skied the slope without any signs of loose dry avalanches.

We backed off of Divide Peak and found fresh snow that bonded well to windcrust on non solar aspects on Hyalite Peak.

Erika and I skied the Bunny Ears yesterday in what I'd describe as thin and "conditionally stable" conditions. We dug a quick pit at the top of the line and found a shallow snow pack (~1 meter) with rounding depth hoar near the ground. With crusty wind hammered surface conditions and no cohesive slab the only test results we saw was a Q3 CT12 about 20 cm off the ground. After an ECTX for good measure we dropped in and enjoyed improving ski quality the lower we got until the trees got too tight and the facet wallowing began. Although the underlying structure still isn't great up there, it's really hard for me to imagine a human triggering anything significant right now, but obviously that could change when a major load gets added. 

My group and I decided on Blackmore and left the trailhead around 0930. We saw a few folks on the way out to Blackmore and a couple heading back after an early morning. The weather was really nice the whole way out, unseasonably warm and not very windy at all. The warm weather is a little disappointing overall, but it made for a pleasant skin out to the base of Blackmore. The lookers right shoulder of the mountain was very tracked up and there were scatter tracks throughout the rest of the east face. We went up to 9400' near one of the lower cliff bands to dig a pit and do some stability tests. We ended up digging on a bulls eye east aspect in 110cm of snow. There were a surprising amount of layers in the snow with a soft layer of about 5-10cm of the most recent snow on top of a hard wind packed slab. Under that slab was a layer of softer rounds followed quickly by the 25-45cm of facets separated by some thin crusts. We got a CT12 and ECTP17 Q2 both breaking at the basal facet layers about 35cm from the ground. We opted for the tracked up shoulder, not the best skiing but a good day out with friends. 

Variable conditions observed in upper McAtee Basin yesterday afternoon (1/16). Sastrugi, sun cupping, punch crust, edgeable ice, dry powder, and wet snow all present.  

Cheers - Ryan

We dug a very quick pit at the base of the bowl on the Maid of the Mist side of Arden Peak, and noticed slabs, the first of which was about 6 in down, and the second an additional foot down. Below the second slab was some worrying sugary snow that was sliding the slabs around as we were digging. We did not perform full column or propagation tests, but did decide to turn around early.