Northern Gallatin

This afternoon we went for a tour up Mt Ellis. The winds ripped across the ridge from the west, heavily loading the east to northeast aspects and building up some impressive cornices. We avoided the wind-loaded slopes and dug a pit in a protected meadow on a northeast aspect below the ridge. There was little evidence of wind loading and we observed strong stability in our pit. 

On Saturday (2/18) we toured into Maid of the Mist and dug a pit on a northern aspect at the base of the skinny maid. Our results indicated that where there was wind loading, it was very likely to fail and propagate. In addition to the ECTP 1 on the wind slab, we noticed shooting cracks on isolated pockets of wind loading. 

Today I toured up to Chestnut Ridge via Goose Creek Trail. I noticed many wind deposits on the upper ridgeline that were actively thickening from the gusty Western winds (roughly 25mph average at the ridge). I dug a quick pit at 7370' on an Eastern aspect under the ridgeline and got some very touchy results. My HS was 125cm. I got a CT4, sudden collapse, Q1, breaking within a thick layer of advanced basal facets. The slab that came off was 85cm in height and very cohesive. Between the obvious wind loading near the ridge and my test result (which, I'm sure I could have replicated based on my probing of the area), our party decided to stay completely out of avalanche terrain and ski a few runs on mellow meadows and glades nearby. Minimal new snow fell during our tour -- just broken skies and a healthy dose of wind moving through the area. Stay safe out there through this storm cycle!

The winds were blowing on top of Ellis Sunday, predominant direction from the SW.  New snow approximately 12-15 cms.  Dug a hasty pit, 1 meter deep, on a east facing, 30 degree slope at approximately 7700 feet.  The slope was seeing light wind loading and the top meter showed no signs of a weak layer, just a gradual increase in density with depth.  We saw/experienced no signs of snow instability.  The skiing was good, a fun time was had by all.  

Went for a quick tour up Ellis today. Dug twice along the ridge, both pits had ECTN 12-14 under the new snow. Top of Ellis was worked by the east winds. Worked my way down carefully on the southern end of the Meadow area. Overall the stability seems to have improved since Doug and Ian were up earlier in the week.
 

We were in the Lick creek area and did an ECT test,  the new snow appeared to be bonded well but on ECT 20 we got a clean sheer about 30 inches down across the column. We headed back to lower angle terrain.

We rode up Portal Creek today to check motorized boundaries.  Riding in the meadows and trees in the basin's north of Golden Trout lakes was decent and not caught any wind.  All of the ridge tops appeared to be heavily scoured or wind loaded, depending on aspect and we noted several small wind slabs on the N-NE ridge tops directly above the lake.  They appeared partially filled in so we're likely from a few days ago.  We did not see any recent tracks climbing much above tree line, likely since everything had been so wind affected higher up.