Cooke City

Elevation: 10231

aspect: ESE

time: 10:35, April 22nd 

CTX - broke below isolated block, pit depth ~100cm 

Avalanches in the goose lake area: small loose snow avalanches on shady aspects. Evidence of rollerballs and small cornice falls on sunny aspects from previous days. 

Dug a pit around 9700' on a WNW shaded aspect below a couloir on Miller Mountain in Cooke City. We found ~95cm snowpack, with 5-10" of lower-density fresh snow. We dug to the ground and found a consistent and firm snowpack all the way down, didn't find any facets at the ground. Isolated cracking, ECTN25 ~20-25cm down, below the thick melt-freeze crust from the warm-up immediately before this week's snow. The fresh snow had sluffed out on most chutes before we got there (likely during the storm) but we saw very little sluff triggered by our skiing

The fresh snow skied great on shaded aspects that hadn't been affected by wind. Non-shaded snow surfaces were definitely getting wet by 1 pm, the sun felt hot, but we didn't observe any wet slides before we left. The snow on the ride out was very wet, with watery-slush puddles on the lower parts of the trail.

A skier triggered this sluff in a steep chute east of Republic Mountain. Photo: B

Skiers triggered a small sluff in steep terrain while skiing on the Fin near Republic Mountain. Photo: B. 

Cookes' always interesting in the spring, deep slab goes to sleep and the Grizzlies wake up. Curious how she knew to thread the cornice just right(Sheep Mt). Second Pic is a large sluff on the Fin, couldn't quite make out the track route till I drove to Silver Gate. He skied the hanging gully to the east of the third pic and rock climbed across the cliff to this sluff and tracks... Don't ask how I know it was a grizz, no time to get a pic.

From IG message 4/17/24: "Remote trigger up little bear today. Went to the groundish."

Riders saw this wet slab avalanche on the SE shoulder of Mount Abundance. The avalanche likely happened a few days ago during prolonged above-freezing temperatures. Photo: R.

Riders saw this wet slab avalanche on the SE shoulder of Mount Abundance. The avalanche likely happened a few days ago during prolonged above-freezing temperatures. Photo: R.