Lionhead Range

From obs on 12/25: "I veered off the existing skin track and experienced a sizeable collapse on the NE side of the ridge.  I'd estimate the collapse extended roughly 30 feet in either direction.  I continued along this path and experienced one additional collapse." Photo: J. Hobson

We toured up Lionhead Ridge from Targhee Pass for a nice Xmas day tour.  Was a calm and comfortable day.  Just beyond the first large opening above 8200', I veered off the existing skin track and experienced a sizeable collapse on the NE side of the ridge.  I'd estimate the collapse extended roughly 30 feet in either direction.  I continued along this path and experienced one additional collapse.  Fun day out.  We did manage to find some supportable soft snow on the shadier side of the compass (NE to E aspect) from 8200' down to 7600' for some fun turns.

Alex Marienthal gets ready to do an ECT in a snowpit off Lionhead Ridge.

Doug Chabot walking off Lionhead Ridge to a snowpit site.

We rode to Ski Hill and dug 10-20 feet north of where it looked like an avalanche class had dug earlier this month. East aspect, 8,500'. Snow depth was 65-75 cm and we had an ECTP30 on the weakest, soft facets 20-30cm off the ground. Poor structure. We suspect this slope had been collapsed at least once from previous groups. Surface hoar was buried below the recent 6" of snow and was not reactive in tests, but pretty easy to see in the pit wall with large 1-2cm crystals above near surface facets.

We rode further up the ridge to "Marge" and dug on an east-northeast aspect. HS was 70-85cm and we had ECTP14 on weak depth hoar/facets 30cm off the ground. Also similar findings of non-reactive surface hoar below 6-7" of recent snow. Interestingly, we also easily found surface hoar in hand pits on more wind-loaded/exposed parts of the ridge and it seemed to break more easily here. This is noteworthy because wind-loaded slopes with buried surface hoar can be a deadly combination.

Calm and sunny today with some recent drifting of the new snow, but plenty of snow to be drifted into wind slabs still.