Northern Gallatin

GNFAC,

Skied Divide Peak today, ski conditions were off the chain! There was probably closer to 8” of low density fluff on the main face up high. Lots of hand pits didn’t show any slab formation, just fluff on sun crust. We observed a lot of loose dry slides in steep terrain. There was a light breeze at the top mid-day, but not enough to form wind slabs, although there is plenty of snow for transport.

Thanks for everything you all do,

Spencer

From Obs 1/23: "While on the ridgeline on the way up we triggered many small wind drifted pockets."

We skied into maid of the mist, dug a pit on a northwest facing slope at about 9800ft and found half the pack was facets. We got ECTP 21, and retooled. While on the ridge line on the way up we trigger many small wind drifted pockets.

Today we toured into the Divide Cirque. We observed multiple small loose dry avalanches that released from steep rocky terrain while approaching the cirque.

We found 35 cm of fresh snow and were surprised with multiple unstable pit results (ECTV, ECTP8) at 9450 feet on a SE aspect of Divide Peak. 11 other skiers had skied the slope without any signs of loose dry avalanches.

We backed off of Divide Peak and found fresh snow that bonded well to windcrust on non solar aspects on Hyalite Peak.

Erika and I skied the Bunny Ears yesterday in what I'd describe as thin and "conditionally stable" conditions. We dug a quick pit at the top of the line and found a shallow snow pack (~1 meter) with rounding depth hoar near the ground. With crusty wind hammered surface conditions and no cohesive slab the only test results we saw was a Q3 CT12 about 20 cm off the ground. After an ECTX for good measure we dropped in and enjoyed improving ski quality the lower we got until the trees got too tight and the facet wallowing began. Although the underlying structure still isn't great up there, it's really hard for me to imagine a human triggering anything significant right now, but obviously that could change when a major load gets added.