Northern Gallatin

Snowpit from the slope where we triggered a whump in Divide Cirque

My partner and I did not skin all the way out to Mt Blackmore, instead we kept it very mellow and stuck to the ridge line east of Blackmore Creek between the hidden lake and Hyalite reservoir. The reason we kept to mellow terrain is because there is close to no snow out in this area. The snow throughout the day will certainly help out in future tours, we saw the flakes falling from the sky for the entirety of our 2.5 hours out in the woods! Stellar dendrites all over the place! Overall, in the dense forested areas there was minimal snow coverage and a whole lot of exposed rocks and logs, not even enough snow to slide. The isolated areas where there was a clearing of trees the snow was considerably deeper, sometimes up to the middle of our calves.

The new snow we saw ranged from 9-10cm in open areas to 4cm in sheltered areas. Underneath the new snow was a crust layer from the last storm that was easily punched through to the basal facet layer. One pit was dug on a NE aspect at 7200' in sheltered trees, total snow depth was 30cm, with 9cm of fist soft new snow sitting on top of a 1cm 1F crust, and 20cm of 1.5mm-2.5mm facets going to the ground. One test resulted in ETCN11 with the failure occurring on the old crust layer. The bonding happening at that crust layer was looking pretty good as the early day snow was denser and had a higher water content. As the day went on the snow became lighter and less dense. Wind held steady all day at a constant rate of 10-15mph with gusts up to 20-25mph coming in from the west/southwest. We didn't end up skiing anything because of conditions, instead we skinned out along the hiking trails, a day in the woods is better than one at home. Hope this helps guys, thanks for all the work you do trying to keep everyone safe. Pray for snow!

From email: "Noted one natural crown off Elephant, NW aspect, 9,600', D2 HS, estimated crown depth around 2 feet, appeared several days old." Photo: G. Antonioli

Strong wind over the weekend deposited fresh drifts, about 10" deep, over weak snow. Bridger Bowl ski patrol triggered a few of these drifts on Monday (12/21) during avalanche mitigation. Photo: BBSP

Went for a quick lap on the Blackmore shoulder to check out conditions up higher in Hyalite. Temps hung in the upper 30s/low 40s with overcast skies and light gusting moderate SW winds throughout our tour.

- Dug a quick pit @9650' on a 27deg SE slope (65cm total depth) and found a mixed bag of well-developed fist-hard facets with a couple of pencil-hard melt-freeze crusts mixed in with ~10cm of decomposing new snow on the surface. The faceted layer from 20-40cm contains grains that are striated and 2-4mm in size, with some forming small chains. Test results: ECTN13@53cm and CT12PC@53cm on facets below a pronounced 4cm thick MF crust.
- Took a peek on the northerly aspect as well and found far more spatially variable snow depths, and more wind-effected surface conditions. The stratigraphy was relatively more simple with soft-to-hard slabs (hardness and thickness depending on location) sitting atop well-developed fist hard facets.
- Spatial variability seems to be the name of the game with snow depths and wind slab formation, but the lower ~40cm of well-developed facets seems pretty darn widespread... bummer!