Northern Gallatin

From email: "Northerly facing terrain harbors October snow, which has faceted. It is holding up plenty of dense snow and wind slab from the quite snowy and windy November. It was unable to hold the additional weight of a human trigger, and two pockets failed at the ground, which produced avalanches. Crown height maxed at 2’. Notably, where it did not avalanche, the failure propagated hundreds of feet down the ridge. It is a good data point- northerly aspects near tree line have potential instability."

Toured up to below Hyalite Peak yesterday morning before the storm. Despite all of the wet snow down low in hyalite, we found a dry snowpack beginning around ~8400’. Around 11am, winds really picked up in the alpine, with constant spindrift coming off cliffs of all aspects. We found lots of wind-affected snow, mainly scoured with the occasional 2-inch wind skin, but the wind was swirling in every direction and we couldn’t pinpoint an exact aspect being loaded.

In areas where the snowpack was deeper (>60cm) hand pits and probing into the snowpack revealed a fairly uniform structure, while thinner areas of the snowpack had more faceting. 
 

The trail to hyalite peak is thin in many spots, but this storm should make the approach much better.

Photo: A.A.

Photo: A.A.

Photo: A.A.

With the inversion and warmer temperatures yesterday, we (group of 3) discovered a super saturated, cohesive snowpack in Hyalite on the approach to High Fidelity. On the first pitch, I narrowly avoided a point release wet loose, probably around D1-1.5. After this we decided to bail. On the rappel, my partner narrowly avoided another wet loose, which he estimated to be D1.5 and deep enough to bury a person past their chest. The sun was not out but the mountains were shedding and there was evidence of warming and wind, because the trees had no snow on them. We were able to make ~2.5 feet in diameter “cinnamon rolls” by rolling a snowball downhill. If you’re going to any of the more exposed climbs in Hyalite, be very mindful of overhead hazards and wet loose problems which you would not expect this time of year. 

With the inversion and warmer temperatures yesterday, we (group of 3) discovered a super saturated, cohesive snowpack in Hyalite on the approach to High Fidelity. On the first pitch, I narrowly avoided a point release wet loose, probably around D1-1.5. After this we decided to bail. On the rappel, my partner narrowly avoided another wet loose, which he estimated to be D1.5 and deep enough to bury a person past their chest. The sun was not out but the mountains were shedding and there was evidence of warming and wind, because the trees had no snow on them. We were able to make ~2.5 feet in diameter “cinnamon rolls” by rolling a snowball downhill. If you’re going to any of the more exposed climbs in Hyalite, be very mindful of overhead hazards and wet loose problems which you would not expect this time of year. 

Toured up lick creek on Thursday morning. Mostly Cloudy, pretty warm around 37 degrees. Wind was gusting fairly hard at the ridge from the SW and had deposited and compacted lot of snow on the top of the NE Bowl. Dug a quick pit around around 8000' on the NE side of the ridge. Snowpack was about 60 cm deep and a quick compression test failed around CT 24 on near surface facets about 4 cm from the ground. The block that failed was a cohesive slab about 50 cm thick.

Dave and I rode up Little Bear canyon to the cabin today . Strong SW winds had scoured most exposed areas near the cabin at 7500'. We also noticed clear wind drifting along the road. Off trail, the snowpack was supportable underfoot and we were not punching through to the ground. Temps were balmy at the truck, 45° when we left around 11am.