Snow Observations List

We saw the slide happen.   Maybe 200 yards wide 4 to 10 ft deep crown.  Triggered by a guy riding along in the run out zone, he was partially buried and got himself out. One of the kids has some photos in this phone, we will try to send them shortly.

We rode to Round Lake and around the north and west side of Sheep, and back out through Round Lake. There was a big avalanche on the northeast side of Sheep that was previously not reported. It was there this morning so maybe happened yesterday. 6-8'+ deep, 500' wide R4-D3-O.

This morning we saw previous avalanches on Henderson Mtn. in better light and got a photo of one on the lower Henderson Bench. Showing wide propagation through thick trees.

Temps were warm under clear skies with calm wind. Snow surface was getting moist in the afternoon on sunny slopes.

Saw this avalanche in the Rasta Chutes today, not sure if it was already sent in. Here is a picture from across the valley. The avalanche ran almost to the bottom of the chute, covering sled tracks heading into tradgenic. 

We rode out to the avalanche that was triggered yesterday on Henderson Mtn. It broke over 2000' wide (measured on GPS) and all the way up to the ridgeline, 6-10' deep and maybe 12-15' deep at the deepest section. There were a couple hundred feet of slope that had not slide between this one and the similarly large slide to the north last weekend. The deepest debris was probably 15-20'.

We also saw a fresh huge avalanche on the south side of Scotch Bonnet that happened today or late yesterday. 4-6' deep and 300' wide. Both slides were R4-D3-O. There was another fresh slide in the Rastas (one that didn't slide last weekend) that looked fresh yesterday or today, 4' deep hard slab, R3-D2-O, and one small but deep slab on the north side of Scotch Bonnet, 6' deep x 30' wide, R1-D1.5.

We could see evidence of previous large avalanches in the cirque on Republic Mtn. and in east Woody Creek south of town. There were widespread avalanches along Henderson Bench as well, below the steep break over in the trees, 3'+ deep breaking across multiple terrain features through thick trees, most of the bench slid, and appeared to have happened last weekend.

On my drive to Cooke City I saw old slab avalanches in YNP near Mammoth and on Abiathar and Ampitheater among other places. These appeared to have happened earlier in the week. I also saw a more fresh looking persistent slab avalanche on Barronette, 2-3' deep and as wide as its terrain feature, 100-200' (photo).

Pretty scary. Stay safe out there.

From email: "Natural avalanches photographed near Cooke City today.

Pic 1:  east aspect 9100'.

Pic 2:  east aspect 9450'.

Pic 3:  SE aspect 10,400'.

Pic 4:  W, NW aspect 9,700'.

No collapsing nor cracking, while breaking trail and skiing today."

From email: "This avalanche was triggered by a rider in our group on the 7th. The rider was midway up the slope, it broke above him right under the cornice and he successfully outrun the avy to the bottom. Right above the trail it looked the deepest at 10' to 12' deep at the peak and 6' plus further to the north."

03/07 - observed several crowns on Republic from Town Hill, likely from 03/06. Ray's had a slide on its west end which appeared to be isolated from the large avalanche that was filmed on the shoulder/Ray's. We saw up to 4 other crowns in Republic bowl on NE, N, and NW aspects including one that broke on the NE facing spines looker's left of the Fin that got legs and ran into the trees out of site (R1-D2?).

One note - while all of these slides, including the large one already reported on the shoulder were on northerly aspects, the majority of the trigger points appeared to be small, steep, thin, NE facing features. We surprisingly woke up to clear skies early on 03/06 and I wonder how much of an impact solar may have played. Other faces and features in the area that are strictly north facing or otherwise protected from the sun didn't appear to be sliding naturally.

From email: "Natural avalanches observed near Cooke City today.  At least 3 big PWL/ deep slab avalanches.  All northerly aspects, mid elevations.  

Also, observed one upper elevation north facing slide that looked more like a storm slab."

East face of Republic Mountain above Erma Mine Cabins. 8800 ft natural avalanche just below the ridge. 3-4 foot crown, Apx 100’ across, ran approximately 1000 feet down the creek bed. Appeared to be from earlier in the morning possibly when the avalanche slid off the north face of Republic, as it had a light dusting of snow over the debris. This start zone was just over the ridge from the North facing 9:14 am avalanche but I don’t think the start zones were connected. 

Observation cam from IG.

While riding north of Cooke City today we observed a large debris pile southern end of Sheep Mountain. SE facing at ~9700'. With poor visibility, I couldn't see a crown but much of the path had been filled in by wind and the debris was covered with fresh snow, making it at least a few days old. This slope was remotely triggered earlier this year in January by riders from the bottom of the slope. 

Observed a debris pile on the east face of Fischer Peak. Unable to determine when and what triggered it. Numerous debris piles on the Rasta Chutes on Scotch Bonnet. 

From email: "Two big avalanches observed above the “plug” east of Cooke city. on my ride over this AM. One ran to the road, unclear if it went over it and maybe the groomer ran over the debris. Appear natural or possibly snowmo triggered? " 

From IG on 3/3/24. Natural on Wolverine and natural between Miller and Sunset. Looked like they went today or yesterday.

Pictures of an avalanche on Henderson Mountain just south of Lulu Pass taken on 3.3.24 (avalanche ocurred on 3.2.24).

Just wanted to pass along some high-resolution images in case they are helpful for future education.

Thanks for all you do!

-Alyssa Barrett

Guides at Beartooth Powder Guides saw numerous natural avalanches near Cooke City. They noted new snow avalanches on most slopes steeper than 30 degrees. Additionally, they saw several avalanches that broke several feet deep on east, southeast, and southwest-facing terrain. 

From email: "We were 3/4 the way up lulu today on the west side of the creek under the Henderson Bench. It broke1/2 way down off the top ridge and ran all the way to the creek. Debris pile 20+ feet. Location matches super slide of 5-6 years ago, we were accros the drainage sitting on the "match sticks" layed out on the trail thru lulu. Ran into the Av center team about an hour before the incident, and as always thanked them for being the best and keeping us all informed! Nobody caught, remote trigged, but we were luckily across the drainage when it went!"

Watched a large avalanche come down the big Avi path on the east side of Henderson.  The avalanche covered many snowmobile tracks from that afternoon.  The crown varied and extended for 1,000 feet below the summit ridge. It was a huge volume of snow that reached Fisher Creek. The snowmobilers were lucky, as it was large enough to be buried deep.  

Observed Deep Slab avalanche on the Shoulder of Republic Mountain today. Went to ground runout/could see dirt throughout runout. 

Two remote triggers from about 250ft away on a slope up lulu pass. A lot new snow and everything was sliding above 30 degrees.