Northern Gallatin

Winds blew plumes of snow off the high peaks and at ridgelines, gusting 50-60 mph. Photo: GNFAC

Today, we traveled into the Maid of the Mist basin and up and along the Palace Butte ridgeline.  Although temperatures have warmed up significantly since the weekend, strong winds kept conditions frigid. Winds blew plumes of snow off the high peaks and at ridgelines, gusting 50-60 mph. Even at low to mid elevations, spindrift was blowing off of cliffs, snow was blowing out of trees, and the surface of the snowpack had been affected by wind. We found stiff, hardened surfaces and sastrugi starting around 8800', nearly 1000' lower than the tops of the surrounding ridgelines. 

Most of the high elevation snow has been transported already. Up high, snow surfaces are hardened and we were mindful of wind slabs that have formed in the last few days. 

On a north facing aspect at 8800' we got an ECTP 22 in our pit test on a wind slab over softer snow. We also dug on a south facing aspect and found new snow on top of a melt-freeze crust and small faceted grains. This crust likely formed during the warm temperatures before the cold spell last Thursday (1/16).  

We heard one collapse on a heavily wind-loaded pillow of drifted snow, but beyond that, the only other sign of current instability was the active wind loading itself. 

We chose to avoid traveling on slopes steeper than 30 degrees that had signs of wind affected snow (textured snow surfaces, stiffening of surfaces, and obvious wind pillows). Slopes that had not been affected by wind held the safest and highest quality riding. 

From Obs. "Wind was swirling in Maid of the Mist yesterday, mostly upslope winds that were transporting snow, but inconsistently and were difficult to predict where they were loading. We did not find widespread wind loading, but did get a very small windslab to release just below the top of the ridge (max 3-4" thickness, see image)." Photo: C. Avis

Wind was swirling in Maid of the Mist yesterday, mostly upslope winds that were transporting snow, but inconsistently and were difficult to predict where they were loading. We did not find widespread wind loading, but did get a very small windslab to release just below the top of the ridge (max 3-4" thickness, see image).

Aspect: East

Elevation: ~9000ft

Snow Depth: 155cm

Pit:

• 155-20cm 1F
• 20-0cm 4F/Fist
• ICT7 (Thin Crust layer at 135cm)
• ECTX

Snow:

• Wind affect up higher. Stayed out of bowl as our chief concern was triggering a wind slab loaded on the crust layer at 135cm. Did have shooting cracks at the top wind affected area. Great snow otherwise!

Additonal information for my mt ellis post, 1/17/2025.  My description of the pit snow profile left out the bottom 15-20 cms which was the ever present sw montana faceted snow.  It did show signs of healing.

Dug a pit on divide peak on a southwest facing aspect that was about 210cm deep. ECTX, PSTX on sun crust 15cm down from surface that the new snow had fallen on. Entire snowpack 4F-1F from the thin sun crust to the buried facet layer than began around 165cm deep. Saw evidence of some wind slabs beginning to form near the ridge line. It was cold.