Northern Gallatin

Skied into middle basin from Beehive this morning and found 8-12 inches of unconsolidated snow on top of a sun crust. While skinning back up to the Beehive/Middle ridge we remotely triggered 12 inches of storm snow on a SE facing gully from 15 ft away, the crown was ~50 ft long. ~8,200 ft. 

Winds increased throughout the morning, actively loading E aspects. 

Photo: M. Legler 

Gusty winds transporting snow in Taylor Fork on Saturday. Triggered a 4-5 inch deep wind slab that propagated about 50 ft at the top of a north east facing slope at 9,500 ft.

Photo: JP

Toured into Flanders today with the goal of skiing the E bowl/SE glades. Winds on the way in were nearly non existent at lower elevations. As we gained elevation, winds increased significantly, but the snow in the E bowl where we skied was largely unaffected aside from a very thin wind skin. Snow on adjacent ridges was clearly being blown. Some good jumps on a small wind loaded test roll yielded no results and a quick hand pit showed a slab that was fairly well bonded to the layers below. The hand pit slab fractured within the old snow on a layer of small facets. Some ski pole probing in many locations showed a relatively consistent snowpack in terms of hardness, but the lower snowpack is certainly of the faceted variety. 

We observed snow being moved by wind out of the SW on the very top of lick creek meadow, as well as evidence of previous wind loading at the top of the NE facing side. We didn't get any whumphing or cracking in the spots we skied over.

We also noticed surface hoar in open areas in the approach and a sun crust on the SW facing slope.

Toured up Blackmore via the south ridge this morning. Winds overnight drifted snow over old tracks and skin  tracks around the area. Once on the ridge, I noticed active wind loading on eastern aspects as well as cornices growing along ridge lines. 

Ice gullies snowpack

Photo: GNFAC

Checked out the snow above Mummy 2 and the Scepter. I was surprised how little snow there was, but a lot of it likely melted off during recent warm weather which was amplified by heating of all the surrounding rocks.

The old snow surface from last weekend is faceted but not too bad, and only has 6" of snow on top. The snowpack is generally very discontinuous. Climbers can mostly walk on rocky areas with minimal snow.

My main concern is what will happen when strong south winds arrive on Saturday. Some snow may fall Sunday and south winds may continue. Fresh wind slabs will be the main concern.

**This observation is not very relevant for the snowpack in the upper bowls of Hyalite where many ski**