Snow Observations List

J. Negen
Southern Madison
Bacon Rind
Bacon Rind - Big Ole Facets

 the snow is still bad! We were on top of bacon rind in the YNP, and dug a pit for fun and education of one of our party members. Experienced some BIG whoomphs on the way up and got very unstable scores. A Q2 CT19 and ECTP24, both around 85cm down into the snow pack (on the top of the very faceted layer we're seeing all over the advisory area. 

Best,

Joe

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Tony
Island Park
Snow appears stable

Centennial range blue and Wilson creeks. Did not see any signs of avys , or snow collapsing or whooping. Riders were on exposed slopes steeper than 30 degrees on all aspects high marking. It seems the centennial range has A more stable pack than other advisory areas. Although did not evaluate snow pack or dig pit, we stayed in low angle terrain 

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G. Roe
Cooke City
COOKE CITY
Photos of a Recent Avalanches S. of Cooke City
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From email: "Noted several 1-2 day old dry loose in steep terrain above the cliffs to the lookers left of Hang Ten. Also A large avalanche. crown propogated through the cliffs and looked to be about 200' wide and 1 1/2-2 ft. deep. Debris was no longer visible so I suspect this ran sometime during or shortly after the storm. (02/15)." 

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B. Fredlund
Cooke City
COOKE CITY
Recent Natural Avalanche near Cooke
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From email: "Photo natural avalanche on a NW aspect at 9000', taken north of Cooke City today. It likely happened right around Feb. 15th."

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F. Miller
Cooke City
Pebble Creek - YNP
Whumpfs in Pebble Creek

Went touring up Pebble Creek today and got multiple whumpfs/large collapses when stepping off the skin track.

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Trask
Northern Madison
Beehive Basin
Red flags observed in Beehive
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  • Widespread stubborn collapsing, often triggered by 3 or 4 person on the slope.
  • Numerous small D.5 loose dry observed in steep terrain.(mostly likely occuring in the last 24 hours)
  • 12" to 14" reactive wind loaded protect on the east side of  ridge tops 
  • Propagation in extended collum test found on multiple aspects at 9000ft
  • Light to moderate winds out the west
  • Consistent snow through out the day S1 to s2 
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GNFAC
Cooke City
Scotch Bonnet
Large Avalanche on Scotch Bonnet
Snow Obsdrvation includes images
Snow Obs contain video

Avoiding avalanche terrain remains our risk mitigation strategy in Cooke City (2/18). We investigated a large avalanche on the north side of Scotch Bonnet that ran 400 vertical feet, broke 400 feet wide, and failed 5 feet deep. You would need to get lucky to survive getting caught in a slide that size, and triggering them is likely on slopes steeper than 30 degrees. There was a small avalanche on a steep rollover below the toe of the debris. Digging in their flank and crown, respectively, we found that they both failed on the layer of surface hoar. This was interesting in that there was well-preserved surface hoar at upper elevation slopes often exposed to the wind. However, the actual failure point is somewhat irrelevant, given the multiple weak layers in close proximity within the snowpack. 

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The danger was CONSIDERABLE. Riders are poking at steep terrain in many areas and really getting into it in some. Avalanches are still getting triggered but not with the regularity I expected. My feeling is that the snowpack can take 0.5" SWE and remain CONSIDERABLE. Much over that, go back to a warning. 

J.
Northern Gallatin
Collapses / shooting cracks in Blackmore area

Several naturals observed from the past few days. Large collapse on a NE 25 degree slope 

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B. 1
Out of Advisory Area
Eastern Beartooths
Snow Obsdrvation includes images

Toured west of Cole Creek outside RLM boundary.  Experienced multiple collapses and cracking.  Unsupportable surface with facets at the base of snowpack.  Stability tests resulted in multiple ECT with propagation. Dug pits in location with previous wind loading HS=141, not as deep on adjacent aspects.  

No natural avalanches observed.  See attached snowpilot profile.  

 

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Anonymous
Northern Gallatin
Flanders Creek
Natural avalanche south of Flanders
Snow Obsdrvation includes images

Toured up to Flanders today. Variable snow but stable conditions on the main route to the SE Bowl. Large natural avalanche on the NE face south of Flanders. 

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N. Daily
Bridger Range
Bradley Meadow
Test scores below bradley’s meadow

NE aspect, 7400 ft. ECTP 14. PST 25/100

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GNFAC
Northern Madison
Buck Ridge
A dozen recent avalanches at Buck Ridge
Snow Obsdrvation includes images
Snow Obs contain video

We rode out Buck Ridge to Muddy Creek and towards Cedar Mtn.. We went to look at the large avalanches riders remotely triggered yesterday. In addition to three previously reported avalanches, we saw at least eight recent avalanches that were not previously reported and appeared to have occurred at various times over the last 1-3 days, natural and/or remote triggered by riders. A group in the parking lot mentioned seeing many slides actively happen in this area on Friday, and a couple slides looked crisp enough to have occurred within the last 12-24 hours. We saw at least six recent slides in Muddy Creek, two in McAtee Basin, and one in Second Yellow Mule. Most were 2-3' deep hard slabs, ranging from 50'-500' wide.

We also saw a fresh avalanche that we either triggered from 750-800 feet away or it broke naturally. This avalanche happened when we were riding near the larger of the two avalanches from yesterday, on the south side of Cedar Mtn. When we regrouped at the base of the recent avalanche I was scanning all the nearby slopes and did not see any fresh avalanches, and noted a huge cornice on a low convex slope. We then rode up and parked near the top of yesterday's slide, and Doug noticed a fresh slide on the slope I had just been starring at. It was a wind-loaded slope, actively loading. The avalanche was ~130' wide with 100' of 4-12" deep new snow/wind slab and 30' wide broke almost 3 feet deep on weak snow near the ground.

Skies were overcast to partly sunny. Wind was light to moderate from the southwest-west. It snowed lightly on and off all day. There was about 1" of new snow at noon at 9,000'.

All the recent large avalanches and a freshly triggered avalanche are clear signs that the snowpack is dangerous and people should avoiding riding on and below steep slopes.

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*My bet is the slide we "triggered from [800] feet away" was a natural, due to the wind-loading last night and actively loading while we were there... Will we ever know? No, and it hardly matters...

DC: We are calling it a "natural remote trigger", a new designation. An ISSW paper is forthcoming.

S. Tyson
Cooke City
Crown Butte
Rider triggered slides over the weekend
Snow Obsdrvation includes images

From IG 2/18/24: “Human triggered slides in cooke yesterday.”

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I don’t think these made it to the web, photos and activity… sent from IG on Sunday… Please post if you have a chance, or I will when I can. -Alex

J. Meyers
Southern Madison
Skyline Ridge
2 Natural Slides at Skyline
Snow Obsdrvation includes images

From IG: 2 avalanches from either this morning or yesterday at the bottom of Skyline ridge 2’ at the crown

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B. Tuholske
Cooke City
Sheep Creek
Sheep creek
Snow Obsdrvation includes images

We were a group of 12 riders skiing the ghost trees up Sheep. We had a safe crossing of the bottom of the large avy slope (south west side of Miller) before skinning up the ghost slope. 
There was 3 other parties, one group of 8, one of 2, and one of 3-4. A few whomps were heard/felt skiing without any propagation or slides on the slope we skied. We did see a few point release slides high up on Miller Ridge later in the afternoon, after the sun had been baking that slope all day. 
The skiing in the Ghost trees was great! Even with all the people. 
we did talk to the group of 3/4. Earlier in the day, they had skinned further up the drainage and climbed up a  west facing rib of Miller proper. On the first steeper slope while skinning up they experienced large snow settling and bailed. 
we could see their tracks, and there actually was a different group that had climbed even higher and skied. We didn’t see any slide activity on the slope they skied. 

On our skin out at 4:30 or so, we could feel the southwest facing snow was definitely sun affected from the solar bake.

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M. Forbes
Northern Gallatin
Buck Ridge
Natural activity up buck ridge
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Lots of natural activity up buck ridge. The one photoed looked like it popped off this morning. Most activity we saw seemed to be on northern facing aspects

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BSSP
Northern Madison
Lone Lake Cirque
Skier triggered avalanche in Mullet near Big Sky
Snow Obsdrvation includes images

From BSSP on 2/17/24: "Midafternoon we received another report of a skier triggered avalanche in the Lone Lake Circe, specifically The Mullet. The reporting party contacted several ski patrollers via cell phone and confirmed that nobody was injured or had taken the full ride. This avalanche failed near the ground on a high elevation NW facing slope with the weight of a single skier with an estimated size of HS-ASu-R3-D2.5-O."

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C. Sexton
Southern Madison
Tepee Basin
Debris from recent slide through thick trees
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From FB 02/17/24: "Observed runout debris from a small avalanche on a south facing forested slope in Upper Tepee Basin. Shows avalanches can occur through forested areas."

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R. Parsons
Lionhead Range
Hebgen Lake
Hebgen Lake Observations
Snow Obsdrvation includes images

From email: "My partner and I toured up to the ridgeline overlooking Hebgen this morning, and I wanted to share our observations. With the exception of some light north winds while walking across the lake, winds were exceptionally calm the remainder of the day.

We noticed a multitude of slides on north- and east-facing slopes, many of which seemed to have been from the prior weekend. I snapped a picture of one on the opposite side of the drainage that was a couple of feet deep. Adjacent to it was some more debris.

We experienced no cracking/collapsing the entire day, which was honestly quite shocking. Given the exceptionally weak snowpack and recent avalanches, we stuck to the ridgeline and followed our uptrack down. Great turns regardless. "

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Anonymous
Southern Madison
Taylor Fork
Slide above the top of sunlight basinoff main Taylor fork trail

North facing slope partially treelined, not heavily windloaded. Rider triggered, Ran 100yards downhill with large debris through trees, broke 2-3' deep at the crown sliding on near earth facets. 1 rider partially caught, airbag deployed, self-extracted with no injuries.

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