Northern Gallatin

We were ice climbing below Divide Peak today. I heard and saw a natural avalanche across the basin on the west facing slopes below Overlook Mountain, I also observed recent avalanche debris below “The G Spot” which is in a couloir below Overlook. Even though there isn’t any recent snow, the snow that is there is getting actively blown around.

A skier kicked off a larger than expected cornice as they skinned up the ridge on the W side of Beehive basin on Sunday (12/20/20).

From obs.: "Kicked off a larger than expected cornice as we skinned up the ridge on the W side of Beehive basin. Wind was blowing 20-ish across the opening, cornice had grown pretty good-sized for so little snow. I was making a turn on skins to get back away from the edge when the cornice gave way, probably pulled 25 feet end to end and broke a good 5 feet back from the lee edge of the cornice. I was able to get off the cornice and avoid going over the edge. No activity on the slope below after cornice drop,...

Natural slide off lower Hyalite Peak. Photo: H. Van Denburg

140-160 cm on the ground on a NNE aspect at 9600’. ECTP-14 on a FC layer 35 cm down. The snowpack was generally right side up but interspersed with at least two other thin persistent layers below the one we saw propagate. I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of major basal facets, at least in the spot where we dug. Despite the dramatic, planar ECT result there were no other signs of instability or recent avalanches, and I ski cut a number of heavily wind loaded small features with no result. The wind slabs were quite stubborn but our observations of the underlying snowpack definitely increases the spook factor for me today, at least in this range.