Northern Gallatin

From obs on 1/23/21: "I observed a couple older (1-2 week) naturals on E/ESE aspects in the Divide basin, and newer (1-3 days) naturals [shown in photo] on the NE side of Divide and an east aspect at the head of the Maid of the Mist basin." Photo: S. Reinsel

From obs on 1/23/21: "I observed a couple older (1-2 week) naturals on E/ESE aspects in the Divide basin, and newer (1-3 days) naturals [shown in photo] on the NE side of Divide and an east aspect at the head of the Maid of the Mist basin." Photo: S. Reinsel

I took a spin up to Divide today, and saw a mixed bag of conditions. A pit on a south aspect at 9300’ gave me HS 160 and ECTP29, failing on facets about 50cm from the ground. A couple spots in the upper pack failed in shear, but were unresponsive in a compression test, and when I pushed over my extended column, it stayed intact. But most of the nice things I have to say about the snow are qualitative observations, which have pretty limited value.
I observed a couple older (1-2 week) naturals on E/ESE aspects in the Divide basin, and newer (1-3 days) naturals on the NE side of Divide and an east aspect at the head of the Maid of the Mist basin. The older slides were noticeably larger than the newer ones, but my sample size was quite small, so I’m not sure what I can infer from that. Ski conditions today were excellent.

Small, loose snow avalanches on the east face of Mt Blackmore. Photo: B. Richards

Small slab avalanche and wind-loading on the north face of Mt Blackmore. Photo: B. Richards

Winds actively drifting the new snow into unstable slabs. Photo: GNFAC

Saw the most recent post on instagram of not finding surface hoar near Mt. Blackmore. I toured up a ridgeline that divides Lewis Creek and Hyalite Creek in paradise valley. I saw surface hoar the entire way up the ridge on all aspects. I believe it formed the night of 9th. I thought I should let you know that there was some surface hoar not to far away as the crow flies.