Northern Gallatin

Toured into Alex Lowe basin today and noticed lots of point release slides. Most started as spindrift in the cliff bands along the ridge and gained more snow as they fell into the aprons. Skied a north and south facing couloir, ski cut at the top of both runs and got the new snow to sluff most of the way down. Didn't encounter any cohesive slabs, just lots of sluff sliding down.

Our goal was to ride the North Face of Mount Blackmore yesterday in hopes of north aspects still holding good snow. We noticed some cornices on the top of the line and changed our objective to another entrance onto the north face farther down the ridge from the main North face line. When we got to the top of the line we could see it was noticeably wind loaded at the top and we found very large depth hoar crystals near the bottom of the snowpack. Heaving wind loading and the large depth hoar crystals gave us pause and we hiked back up and skied down the East face. We also saw what looks like a cornice about to break off along the ridge of the North face. 

We toured up to the Mt. Blackmore ridgeline today. Near Mt. Blackmore most of the snow was wind affected, and today’s winds at the ridgetops were not blowing snow around because there is little snow left for the wind to transport. We dug three pits on different aspects and elevation bands, and we didn’t find surface hoar in any of these pits.The pits we dug had facets near the surface all the way to the bottom of the snowpack, and it was capped with a 1-3” of wind-packed snow. We were able to get an ECTP18 on facets above a crust 10” below the surface on a SE aspect at 9,500’. And, we got an ECTP18 on a NE aspect at 9,800’ in a shallow, wind stripped area below Mt. Blackmore’s ridgeline. This was in a layer of facets 2 feet below the surface. We were not able to replicate these results in either snowpit. Buried weak layers are getting harder to trigger, and these pits showed how finding a thin spot on a slope could still trigger an avalanche.

Darren Johnson was a passionate skier, patroller, and wildland firefighter and this fund helps his memory live on. During the week of January 16, 2023, there are two events happening to help spread awareness about the DJ Fund and generate donations for the next recipients to attend National Avalanche School in October 2024. The first event is at the Independent Theatre on Tuesday, January 17.