Northern Gallatin

Me and a buddy were out skiing/camping in the Hyalite Lake area. Late Saturday afternoon we started skinning up towards Hyalite Peak. The path up to the ridge was super hardpacked and windswept. We got up and there was quite a bit of snow loaded above the north slope. I dropped over the side and took about two turns before the entire face above me released from the very top and traveled down the entire north side down to the bowl below. I was able to get to the rocks on the side and my partner was able to pick his way down.

Me and a buddy were out skiing/camping in the Hyalite Lake area. Late Saturday afternoon we started skinning up towards Hyalite Peak. The path up to the ridge was super hardpacked and windswept. We got up and there was quite a bit of snow loaded above the north slope. I dropped over the side and took about two turns before the entire face above me released from the very top and traveled down the entire north side down to the bowl below. I was able to get to the rocks on the side and my partner was able to pick his way down. The crown looked a few feet deep from what I could see and stretched across the entire top of the line.

Heading up the Genesis gully towards Zack Attack on 2/5, we turned around after finding multiple very reactive slabs. The first slab broke very easily, ~4 hits from the wrist, and had a very clean shear ~4in deep. The second slab was more difficult to trigger and did not have a clean shear, but was maybe ~1.5-2ft deep.

We observed some crowns from recent slides just south of the Flanders Peak east glade while touring up Flanders today. The snow was wind affected and slabby especially towards the ridges. No other signs of instability observed. We opted to stay in the trees and minimize exposure on the ski descent.

Skied Mt Ellis today. The burn was heavily wind loaded at the very top but softened significantly as you got lower on the slope. I got an ECTX in my pit, the snowpack seems to be adjusting well to the recent load in this area. There were still multiple layers of concern that would give me pause to step out into bigger terrain throughout the advisory area. 

We looked at the snowpack at lower elevations in the northern Gallatin Range (SE aspect, 8,300' elev.) and found a layer of buried surface hoar below last week's snow that was reactive in stability tests (ECTP20, ECTP22). There was also weak, sugary snow through the bottom half of the snowpack that should be kept in mind, especially where the snowpack is relatively shallow. Triggered one small, isolated collapse on a west facing slope around 7,500' where the snowpack was mostly 1-2' deep weak facets, and we found one small pocket that had a drift over the weak snow. The buried surface hoar below last week's snow makes large avalanche possible to trigger for at least a few days.

Today we skied the northmost avalanche path on the east face of Blackmore; the farthest lookers right avi path before the trees. There were strong winds blowing from the southwest which created a very strong, 3-5in deep, wind crust. Certain aspects were heavily wind-loaded creating a very pocketed snowpack in some places. In the first 100 feet of my descent, I experienced three whumpfs; all of which came from different pockets of snow. Some areas appeared to be very well bonded, whereas others were far less so. We also observed multiple crowns across the eastern face, all of which appeared to have slid a few days ago. They ranged in width from 50-300ft and looked to be 1-3ft tall. The runout and debris were not visible. 

100 cms of snow in the meadow at the head of Moonshine.  So much snow took a long time to make it to the top.  I have not seen the summit area wind affected like it is for a long time.  Actually dug a pit and performed an ECT approximately 50 meters north of the of the burn on an east facing swallow angle slope.  Pit depth 135 cms.  There was a thin hard/ice layer at mid depth in the snow.  ECTN with initiations  at 2 locations in the upper half of the snow pack.  An encouraging sign is the strengthening of the facted snow at the ground.  Skiing in the trees was good, the snow is dense.