Northern Gallatin

From obs (3/10/22) : "Today we triggered a small pocket of wind loaded snow while ascending (bootpacking) the East ridge of Blackmore. The convexity broke about 1 foot down and propagated about 10 feet wide. It ran the entire distance of the East face ~800’."

Photo: C. Firer

Today we triggered a small pocket of wind loaded snow while ascending (bootpacking) the East ridge of Blackmore. The convexity broke about 1 foot down and propagated about 10 feet wide. It ran the entire distance of the East face ~800’. 

The yellow circle shows the skier triggered soft slab avalanche that was seen on the approach to Mt Blackmore. Photo: N. Roe

Ski toured up to Blackmore today.

On the way in we noticed a skier triggered soft slab on the short west facing shots as you approach the meadow. (attached is the photo - SS-R1.5-D1-I).

The main face had several natural and skier triggered dry loose slides but nothing stepped bellow the Crust. We skied the low angle section of the shoulder near the trees in search of untracked snow and would slide on the bed surface if you were a bit too heavy on your feet. 

There was virtually no wind up there today but the was some minor cornice growth on the ridge. 

I dug a test pit just below the skin track at ridge level and found 30cm of new snow that was just slabby enough to produce and ECTP22Q1 30cm down - on top of the crust. HS 170 - Slope Angle 35 - Aspect 085 - Elevation 9500.

Hope thats helpful!

Skied History Rock around 5pm this evening ~25cm new snow at the top meadow, snow was tapering off, winds were calm. Did a quick shovel tilt, new snow seemed well bonded to the melt freeze crust underneath. 

As we moved along a steep break over near Lick Creek, we triggered shooting cracks and an avalanche on a small test slope. The avalanche slide on a hard melt-freeze crust formed last week. Photo: GNFAC