Trip Planning for Cooke City Area

as of 5:00 am

Today	1″ \| 15-30 NW
Dec 8	5″ \| 15-40 W
Dec 7	1″ \| 25-55 S

Lulu Pass Weather Station

10020′ 12/09 at 10:00

6.3℉
W - 2mph
Gusts 9 mph

Fisher Creek SNOTEL Site

9100′ 12/09 at 11:00

9℉
30″ Depth

Full Forecast

Primary Problem: Persistent Weak Layer

Bottom Line: Unstable snow is widespread across our advisory area. Weak snow at the ground that fell in October and early November has been overloaded by this week’s new snow. Any slope that held snow before last weekend is suspect. If you ride on or beneath steep slopes today, expect to trigger avalanches. Avoid the hazard by sticking to lower angled slopes today and avoiding crossing runout zones beneath steeper slopes.

Past 5 Days

Sun Dec 3

None

Mon Dec 4

None

Thu Dec 7

Considerable

Fri Dec 8

Considerable

Today

Considerable

Relevant Avalanche Activity

2023-12-08

Widespread cracking and collapsing

Coordinates: 45.2952, -111.4100
Caught: 0 ; Buried: 0

Cracking and collapsing reported across the advisory area in the Bridger Range, Big Sky area, near West Yellowstone and Island Park, and near Cooke City.

More Avalanche Details

2023-12-04

Cooke City

Henderson Mountain

Natural Avalanche North of Cooke City

Henderson Mountain
SS-N-R2-D1.5
Coordinates: 45.0524, -109.9450
Caught: 0 ; Buried: 0

From GNFAC: We rode up Daisy Pass road... saw a couple 8-10" deep natural avalanches on the steep slopes above Miller Creek that probably ran in the last 24-48hours. We had multiple collapses on the NE facing slope where we ski toured to dig our second pit.

More Avalanche Details

Natural avalanches in Miller Creek

Natural Avalanche North of Cooke City

2023-12-03

Cooke City

COOKE CITY

Natural Avalanches near Cooke City

COOKE CITY
Coordinates: 45.0202, -109.9380
Caught: 0 ; Buried: 0

Skied around Mt. Henderson today. Was finding around 28-35 cm of new snow at 9k'. Perhaps 10cms in town. Light density. Minor wind effect. Partly cloudy morning, turning mostly cloudy. Cold temps. Calm to light winds where I was, but lots of snow was being transported off the exposed ridgelines south of town. Quite a bit of cracking of the new snow this morning while breaking trail and while skiing, even though the wind effect was still Fist hardness. A couple of collapses noted as well in the deeper drifts.

More Avalanche Details

Miller Ridge, showing some minor things happening mid storm.

Natural avalanche on east Henderson

Relevant Photos

Displaying 1 - 12

Natural avalanches in Miller Creek

We rode up Daisy Pass road... saw a couple 8-10" deep natural avalanches on the steep slopes above Miller Creek that probably ran in the last 24-48hours. We had multiple collapses on the NE facing slope where we ski toured to dig our second pit. Photo: GNFAC
Natural Avalanche North of Cooke City

Constant red flags on W Henderson.
Cracking near Lulu Pass

From obs: "Lots of cracking and collapsing on skin track and ski cuts were reactive on steeper slopes. Dug on NE slope 9640'. HS 110cm ECTN 12 & ECTN 14 40cm down." Photo: R. Youngbar
Miller Ridge, showing some minor things happening mid storm.

Skied around Mt. Henderson today. Was finding around 28-35 cm of new snow at 9k'. Perhaps 10cms in town. Light density. Minor wind effect. Partly cloudy morning, turning mostly cloudy. Cold temps. Calm to light winds where I was, but lots of snow was being transported off the exposed ridgelines south of town. Quite a bit of cracking of the new snow this morning while breaking trail and while skiing, even though the wind effect was still Fist hardness. A couple of collapses noted as well in the deeper drifts. Photo: B. Fredlund
Natural avalanche on east Henderson

Skied around Mt. Henderson today. Was finding around 28-35 cm of new snow at 9k'. Perhaps 10cms in town. Light density. Minor wind effect. Partly cloudy morning, turning mostly cloudy. Cold temps. Calm to light winds where I was, but lots of snow was being transported off the exposed ridgelines south of town. Quite a bit of cracking of the new snow this morning while breaking trail and while skiing, even though the wind effect was still Fist hardness. A couple of collapses noted as well in the deeper drifts. Photo: B. Fredlund
Bear Tracks with Sastrugi

Bear tracks in the wind-eroded snow. Photo: B Fredlund
Crown and debris on Henderson

Avalanches on Henderson Mountain near Cooke City were reported via instagram on 11/9/2023. Estimating they occurred a day earlier.

From message: "on Henderson in Cooke just above the lulu trail. It was surprising to see so much activity"

Photo: A. Mulkey
Avalanche on henderson

Avalanches on Henderson Mountain near Cooke City were reported via instagram on 11/9/2023. Estimating they occurred a day earlier.

From message: "on Henderson in Cooke just above the lulu trail. It was surprising to see so much activity"

Photo: A. Mulkey
Avalanches at Pine Creek

From IG: “Pine creek today, some small wind slabs and a full depth wet slide off black mountain”
Avalanche at Pine Creek

From IG: “Pine creek today (10/21), some small wind slabs and a full depth wet slide off black mountain”
Avalanche on Mt. Blackmore, hyalite

From obs. "Was out alpine climbing today and observed the north face of Blackmore had slid already."
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