Northern Gallatin

Skied Divide Peak this morning. Snowfall totals in the main fork were around 3", while the Shower falls area experienced 6-8". Inconsistent snow depths within divide cirque highlight heavy snow transport yesterday and overnight. Varying levels of sun crust below the most recent snow were widespread.

One hand shear on a solar ESE aspect demonstrated cohesiveness, which seemed to be due to moist snow, on a thick crust. Sheer quality created a pretty smooth bed surface.

Today's tour provided many views of undulating wind effect- cornices on west-east ridges formed on south and north sides. Plenty of large cornices were present and could be quite destructive.

Spotted two fresh natural slides, one within Divide cirque on a NE aspect @ ~9,800 (D1, R1), and another on the N face of Hyalite @ ~10,200ft. that was mostly out of view, but could be estimated around similar size and destructiveness. These seem to have occurred within the last 24 hours, or after snowfall, likely windslabs on lee slopes.

We skied east of the central divide gully, avoiding wind issues to the west and solar issues to the east.

Spotted this big guy on the east face of Blackmore today. Seemingly natural and I believe it occurred in the last 36 hours or so. Debris had last nights snow on it. I’d estimate it at D2. 

at history rock today we did an extended column test and a regular column test. Both tests were performed a few feet from one and other, and both pits were dug to the ground on a 26ish degree slope. The extended column test fully propagated on the 4th tap from the elbow scoring ectp 14. The regular column test failed after one tap from the wrist. Both failed on the sugary facet near the bottom of the snowpack I did not record any exact depth measurements or perform further tests. estimated coordinates (45.48811,-111.00942) I think it was the first powder field. 

Our party took a slow tour up and down the SE face of Blackmore today. New rollerballs were observed on E aspects, and we witnessed a natural D1 loose wet slide occur on the east face of Blackmore at around 1:00. Dug a quick pit on the way up (NE aspect, ~8700’) out of curiosity about snowpack structure and fracture initiation. HS 110 cm. A compression test yielded CTM (15 taps), with a Q2 resistant planar shear at 60 cm depth. Was surprised to not find faceted snow near the bottom of the pit, despite the avalanche incident that occurred the day prior on the northeast ridge of Blackmore on a similar aspect and elevation.

Rode up to the head of Portal Creek to area beneath Eaglehead Mtn and then around to the ridge overlooking Hidden Lakes. The trail is very low snow near the Portal Creek trailhead and the snow was wet to the ground beneath a stout crust. As we got higher up the coverage increased and even sunny slopes only had a couple inch thick surface crust over dry snow. On shady slopes there was still dry snow at the surface. We dug on a N aspect at 9400 ft just north of Eaglehead Mtn. The snowpack was 180 cm deep. We got an ECTX, but the facets near the ground were still soft and sheared off cleanly when pulling on the column. 

We had no signs of instability today. The only avalanche we saw was a large slide on Eaglehead that had been previously reported over two weeks ago.