On both aspects, the wind / sun crust buried under the last little storm is supportable but not adhering well to that storm (some little slabs had come off people's turns about 2/3 the way down the back side) and there was ~ 1/4" surface hoar formed in the sunny spots of both aspects already at about noon today.
Natural avalanche on 1/1/23 on Saddle Peak. Appeared to involve the new, wind-drifted snow. Photo: BBSP
We looked at the avalanche that killed a snowmobiler yesterday (12/31/22) on Crown Butte near Cooke City. Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of the victim, and those involved with the rescue and recovery. Photo: GNFAC
On December 31, 2022 a snowmobiler was killed in a very large avalanche north of Cooke City, MT. The avalanche occurred near Daisy Pass on Crown Butte on a southeast facing slope at 9,800’. Two brothers (age 17 and 21) from Washington were snowmobiling uphill on adjacent slopes. The older brother was climbing a steeper slope and triggered the avalanche 100-200’ below the top. He was carried 600 vertical feet and buried 5 feet deep. The buried rider was wearing an airbag pack that was not deployed. Both riders had shovels and probes. They were not wearing avalanche beacons. A nearby group of riders rode up to the slide within minutes after it happened, saw a buried snowmobile and began to search for the rider. One rider from that group went into Cooke City to alert Search and Rescue. The buried rider was located with a probe line an hour after the avalanche happened. He was unable to be revived with CPR and AED at the site. The avalanche appeared to be 2-4' deep, 500' wide, 600' vertical, and broke on weak snow near the bottom of the snowpack. AMu-HS-R3/4-D3-O
Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends, and those involved.
Full report available here: http://www.mtavalanche.com/accident/22/12/31
On December 31, 2022 a snowmobiler was killed in a very large avalanche north of Cooke City, MT. The avalanche occurred near Daisy Pass on Crown Butte on a southeast facing slope at 9,800’. The avalanche appeared to be 2-4' deep, 500' wide, 600' vertical, and broke on weak snow near the bottom of the snowpack. Photo: GNFAC
From email: Dug a pit on a NW aspect near the bottom of Lick Creek. Saw sugary facets 50 cm down from the surface of the snow. Perfromed an ECT and got ECTX.
From email: Dug a pit on a NW aspect near the bottom of Lick Creek. Saw sugary facets 50 cm down from the surface of the snow. Perfromed an ECT and got ECTX.
Toured up to the east face of Mt. Blackmore today. We observed two small natural loose dry avalanches occurring right around noon on the new/old snow interface at about 9700' on the E aspect. The largest one ran about 200 feet down into the bowl.
We observed a hollow snowpack on our ascent and dug a pit at 9600' just below the northeast ridge. We found several weak layers that were fracturing beneath two well-defined crusts. We got a CT2 @ 135cm, CT11 @ 130cm, CT13 @ 118cm, and CT15 @ 115cm; in our extended column test we got ECTP15 Q2 @ 130cm.
