Snow Observations List

I recieved a call from BBSP patrol director at 9:50.

They had widespread, hair-trigger results during avalanche mitigation work.

A lot of slopes avalanched naturally before patrol made it up the mountain.

At 0900 they measured 1.8" of snow water equivalent (SWE) from the last 24 hours at the Alpine gun mount.

We rode teepee sat morning. Pretty good snow but relatively baseless. Broke an arm so fixed and went up blue creek on the west side of IP down Yale Kilgore road. 
we went in about 3pm so it was warm and super dense fog up high towards reas peak. 
rode several draws southwest of the peak prolly about 8000 but could be wrong. 
as we got to the open areas it was already super trenched out and setting up fast forming a nasty ice layer that was everywhere. Open areas, in tight trees etc. 

it was setting up but also warm so kind of turning to corn snow but the ice layer was so thick and rigid it was audible over the sound of the sleds. If you stuck a leg in it wouod grab your leg etc and it was everywhere we rode. 
 

rode until dark then rode out. Seemed to be getting worse the later it got. 
 

heard from others that they experienced similar conditions in big springs. 
 

hope this is helpful :) pin is approximate 

While touring up a low-angle ridge in the northern Lionhead, I experienced several large collapses, notably one that triggered a cornice fall from 50’ away. Another remote collapse caused about 500’ of an E facing bowl to propagate, but not slide. ~9200’ E-SE

Dug a small test pit. Unprofessional observation ectp 10 on the persistent weak layer seen across the advisory area. On our way out near the cabin I cut a line close to a creek to see if I could trigger something. 

About 2 feet of new snow since Friday, 10 inches of that were today. 

Couple collapses... Most aspects. No avalanches observed but visibility has been very low 

We dug snowpits on Saturday. SW facing, 9700 ft. Average HS 120. Several ECTNs 30 down. No propagation. Snow above the 12/21 sun crust is F hard

Also dug a pit today.... NW facing, 9200 ft. HS 125. ECTN12 35 down x2. There is also a thin crust 45 cm down in this pit. 4f snow above. 

Teaching a Level 1 up at Woody Creek Cabin the past couple of days. 2-2.5' has fallen since Friday, but 11" of that snow came throughout today. 

We toured up the East Side of Woody Ridge today. There was heavy snow throughout the day, steady winds (light-moderate) above the tree line all day, and low visibility. No cracking/collapsing, and no observed avalanches in the visible terrain. The skin track was completely refilled on the tour back to the cabin (within ~2 hours). 

We dug below Rip Curl: NE facing aspect @ 8620'.  Average HS 95-105cm. CT8 on the buried surface hoar about 2' down. ECT results: no propagation. The new snow that fell today was F-hard and unconsolidated. 

Likely the same up high, at the house on Horse Butte the storm snow has been increasing in density dramatically since morning.

Moderate SW'ly winds on the ridge were enough to entrain and transport some surface snow. However, windslab formation was very isolated, slabs were soft (4F), and not reactive to ski travel. Most surface snow in the area was unconsolidated, in some cases with a thin (<1cm) surface wind skin.

The top 150 feet of the SE path was scoured with variable ski quality, however below this the snow was largely unaffected by today's wind and skied well. No tracks were visible from previous days.

Around 2pm the base of the clouds descended, and snowfall began at a rate of S-1.

Dug at 7000ft up Brackett Creek near but well below Texas Meadow. HS82 with mid pack weak(er) layers that produced propagation in an extended column test (ECTP13) at around 45cm down. Snowing steadily in the afternoon with no wind at this mid elevation.

Thick and robust ice crust layer widespread above white elephant.  Currently 4-5” of fresh snow on top of crust. Currently snowing heavily with moderate winds SW with gusts. 

This is avalanche weather - heavy snowfall and strong winds transporting snow. With this weather, it doesn't really matter what's going on in the snowpack. The loading from snowfall and strong winds will find the weakest layer in the snowpack and produce persistent slab avalanches.

Snow depths going up from Republic Creek at 8200 ft to the top of Woody Ridge at ~10,000 ft  ranged from 60 cm to 120 cm. Weaker where thinner and stronger where deeper. What surprised me was that we couldn't get a single collapse/whumpf or any cracking despite our best efforts getting off the established skin track. Given the rapid loading and wind loading combined with buried facets, I expected at least on collapse. However, a lack of collapsing doesn't override all the other red flags. 

The snowpack north of town and south of town seemed reasonably similiar. The biggest differences were with elevation. Generally above maybe 9000-9500 ft, the snowpack is a goof 4 feet deep. 

I WON'T BE SURPRISED TO HEAR OF SOME LARGE AVALANCHES AT UPPER ELEVATIONS on peaks like Henderson, Crown Butte, etc where some slopes are being heavily wind-loaded. 

Looking into the future, though, I feel optimistic. The snowpack is growing and will hopefully get stronger in the future as weak layers are insulated and buried more deeply. Yesterday north of Cooke, weak layers generally buried about 2 feet deep showed signs that they were gaining some strength and hardness. We'll see. 

We rode around a big chunk of the Cooke City area from the Miller Road, up to Daisy, around the backside of Fisher Mtn, into Fisher Creek, and looping around Scotch Bonnet Mtn. Ee saw no signs of instability. No cracking or collapsing. While tracks on slopes don't indicate stability, there were a lot of tracks on small test slopes, and none produced small avalanches. 

In all our snowpits, the weak layers were generally 2-2.5 feet deep and I was pleasantly surprised that they seem to be gaining some hardness. It feels that the snowpack has benefited from the steady trickle of light snow in the Cooke area. It hasn't added much water weight, but the continuous light snowfall in the Cooke Area has been slowly insulating and burying the weak layers without stressing them.

Unfortunately, we could not find any buried surface hoar, but we know it's out there. We also know that other areas like slopes south of town up Republic Creek are likely much weaker. 

Without a major load of snow (and water), below treeline, avalanches are still possible but don't feel too imminent. It's different story going above treeline - where avalanches have been happening, where there's lots of wind loading, and where there are lots of potential trigger points. Stay below treeline.

Riding in the vicinity of Fish Creek Trail. Conducted a snowpit, result, ECTX. Snow was stable in this particular spot, did not have enough time to conduct another snowpit. HS 115, melt freeze crust 6-8" below surface, SH at 75cm, facets approximate lower 1/3 snowpack, 2-3 melt freeze crusts in snowpack. Overall 2 cohesive slabs make up the snowpack in this particular snowpit, split by MFcr.  Also in the area signs of wind slabs on N, NE, E, and SE aspects. Airtemp -6C, moderate winds from SW, light snow, and OVC.

On Saturday (12/28) we saw a small avalanche along Lionhead Ridge while riding (photo).

From the highway, with binoculars, we also saw a larger avalanche north of Lionhead Ridge in a large lower elevation steep meadow. This one appeared 1-2' deep and 150-200' wide, possibly slightly wind-loaded, but not a heavily/typical wind-loaded slope.

We also got a vague report of a rider who was partially buried with their sled.

From IG Stories: A group on the "Rip Curl" area of Woody Ridge south of Cooke City report ECTP1 test results failing on buried weak layers. 

Felt 2x collapsing or wompfing of the snow in the Two Top area, observed wind scoured terrain with wind slab deposits on the N, NE, E, and SE slopes.  Storm Slab of 6-8" over melt freeze cust. Shooting cracks in front of skis. Light snowfall during the day, overcast skies, and light winds.

Toured to Upper Hyalite Canyon to Divide Peak and we were pleasantly surprised. The layer of weak facets buried almost 2' deep up there has gained some hardness (4 fingers hardness instead of Fist hardness). It produced more promising test scores than we've been seeing in other places.

• ECTN at 9000', NE facing
• ECTP30 at 9560' E facing
• ECTP27 and ECTP23 at 9600' SE facing

We did not experience any cracking or collapsing. There had been strong winds three days ago, but it didn't seem like winds have moved much snow since then and there was lots of great powder skiing.

This is just one observation but it is perhaps a hint that this layer could heal in the reasonable future. Continuing to bury this layer with light snowfall would do it. 

For now, we're cautiously optimistic that we found one place with decent-ish looking snow. Hyalite and the entire Northern Gallatin Range is a large place with a lot of variability and likely many places with plenty of weak snow that warrants digging and assessing the weak layer. 

We skied Middle Basin and Going Home Shoot today. Around 9am, wind was calm with a high OVC cloud ceiling. By 10:30, the clouds rolled in and S-1 to S1 began for about 2 hours. The clouds raised, snow ceased, and the sun peaked through by 12:30pm.

No cracking, collapsing or evidence of avalanches were observed throughout the day. Middle basin skied well with ~6-10” of recent snow in places- the formation of a new snow slab seemed to be in the making. Although wind was calm today, cornices and windboard were apparent on the Beehive-Middle Ridge.

I slid down the ridgeline between Truman and jones creek on Friday. Dug a quick pit where Alex likes to dig on the wnw aspect of the shoulder next to the main path. Melt/freeze at the ground about a foot thick, ten inches of loose facets on that, and a wind crust topping it 1-4 inches thick. And 5 inches of new snow. I skied the ridge down and the old drifts were supportable but intermittent. Eighteen inches of faceted snow in between that made for challenging skiing. It will be interesting to see what 2 inches of swe will do 

We rode to Ski Hill then around and up onto Lionhead Ridge. We found buried surface hoar in both locations,1-1.5' deep, with soft sugary facets below. Along the ridge we had two small, but audible collapses, when we walked from our sleds to a snowpit. We had ECTP23 breaking on the weak layer a little over 1 foot deep with HS of 84.

Skies were overcast to obscured with light snowfall. 1-2" fell through the day, and light to moderate winds.