Northern Gallatin

Went up Blackmore creek early this morning to assess steeper terrain, with plans to ski the laser on Elephant Mountain. We decided to boot up the couloir in order to assess the snowpack as we ascended. Through he first quarter of the line we generally found a dense but very thin windslab/board on the surface, with relatively consistent snow beneath. Upon noticing an increase in density at 9350', we isolated a crude column (2' deep) with the handle of our ski pole. We tested this column, finding two clean fractures separating dense & cohesive slabs. The upper slab was approximately 8-10" thick, the one beneath about 3".
We retreated and skied back to the car.

In the pictures, the 3" thick slab can be clearly seen, the 8-10" slab at the top of the snowpack is toppled upside down, but had similar density and cohesion.

My partner and I skied the glades off the east side of Mt. Ellis and found a relatively stable snowpack. There was cornicing present on the lee side of the ridge but we did not find the cornices or any wind slab to be reactive. We dug a snowpit on the east side down from the summit at 8240 ft. Our test results presented a CT 21 SC on a layer of facets at the ground. Our ECT presented as ECTN 16 at 64cm above the ground on what looked to be an interface between old/new/wind deposited snow. The skiing up high is excellent. Early season conditions still exist down low with exposed logs, rocks, etc. Temperatures were cold, winds were calm, and a trace of snow fell throughout the day.

Skied the east ridge of Blackmore. Dug a pit at 9500 feet on a SE facing slope, HS 70cm, 25cm of F hard snow on top of a mix of facets and ice crusts. ECTX. Dug a second pit at 9800 feet just off the ridge line, SE aspect, HS 90cm. ~25cm F hard snow on top of ~25cm 1F hard slab above a mix of facets and ice crusts. ECTP26 below the 1F slab. Headed back down the ridge a bit to lower angle terrain. Skiing was terrible, wind effect and breakable crust everywhere. Lots of slopes on all aspects are stripped from all the recent winds.

Dug a pit at about 9700’. We got an ectp 26 @ 43cm down from the surface. Appears to be on a freeze crust.

Winds were gusty. We assumed up to 35mph. Most slopes has blown snow but wind slabs were scattered. Snow was dense.

45.43700, -110.94254 (location of pit)

Parking lot 12:10pm 6436ft, air temp -9C, wind C
2pm ridge 8250 ft sky broken, no precip, air temp -11C, winds: L SW BS: very light intermittent, cornice NE ridge observed when dropping to back side.
2:13pm 7750ft HS 60cm, surface forms rounds 1/4mm-1/2mm estimated 12" powder. No wind, no precip
2:35pm 8000 feet 0.5“-1“ wind slab just below ridgeline on descent lick creek HS: estimated 6-12", poor coverage lots of bushes and rocks S-SW aspect
252pm parking lot 6436ft overcast progressing to obscured S-1
No whoomps, cracks or avalanches seen. Skiing off the backside was amazing.

While on a morning tour up to Ellis, we found generally stable conditions. We dug a quick pit up in the burn and noticed two problematic layers to watch in the future, a crust layer near the bottom of the pit which was on top of 5 or so inches of facets. The second layer was about 1/3 from the top of the snowpack below this weeks snowfall. We did not find propagation, but curious to see how it handles more loading. The ski out is “sporty” to say the least.

We skied Wheeler Mountain on Sunday Dec. 26. We approached via South Cottonwood. The creek is not yet frozen so the approach requires crossing in a narrow log about 40 yards upstream of the summer crossing. Snow depth remains low for most of the approach. We used the summer trail to the last prominent avalanche path and then switchbacked in the forest adjacent to it. We dug 3 pits in the area where the funnel opens up between 8000 and 8200 feet.
All pits had about 25 to 30 centimeters of sugary snow near the ground. All ECTs failed at the top of that sugary snow (none propagated).
Pit 1: Snow depth 60 cm, ECTN 23
Pit 2: Snow depth 90 cm, ECTN 18
Pit 3: Snow depth 115 cm, ECTN 29
Additional thoughts/info: Even though the tests suggest relatively stable conditions, we did not ski this aspect because the upper meadows that feed that avalanche path are in the “perfect” 30 to 40 degree range, the snow depth was highly variable, and those meadows feed into an ugly deep and narrow trench. Anyhow, we traversed further south and skied the large meadow at the south end of Wheeler Mountain where the steepest section is 30 degrees. The skiing was excellent and we got a great workout because it’s a long approach 😉.

We intentionally triggered this 6-8" deep wind slab on Saddle Peak on December 23, 2021, E aspect at 9,000'. It showed us that recently formed wind slabs were still reactive. This hard slab formed over low density new snow which made it unstable. While not large, these slides will easily push you down and can be harmful if they push you into hazardous obstacles or terrain traps. Photo: GNFAC