Snow Observations List

We skied south of Cooke City and dug a snowpit at 9,761' on a west facing slope. We had an ECTP21, 40 cm below the surface (16" down). There was 6-8" of new snow from the weekend above 4" of soft old snow, on top of 4" of a pencil- hard slab, then the soft sugary facets to the ground. ECT broke below the hard slab at the top of the facets (photo). I had one collapse, 10-12' wide near treeline where there was little more wind-loading/effect (photo). 

The unstable test score, very poor snowpack structure, and collapse indicate a person could easily trigger a large avalanche on steep slopes.

Snowed lightly on and off all day with a couple cm accumulation. Wind was light-moderate out of the southwest with mostly overcast skies.

Observed a fresh avalanche this afternoon on Woody Ridge, South of the Submarine. Northwest facing slope, Approximately 10,150'. Appeared to be from today, 2/4. 

We rode north of Cooke City today, 02/04/2024. We stopped below Fisher Bench and dug on an NE-facing slope at 9600'. What we found were unstable test scores, ECTP25, and a poor structure of weak snow. This pit had a well-defined strip of surface hoar that stability tests were failing on. 

We moved on from here over Lulu Pass and towards the wilderness boundary. Along the way, we saw multiple old avalanches and a few more recent ones from last week's warm-up. While climbing a small test slope I saw shooting cracks coming from my skis, and could feel my track breaking through the slab to the weak snow below. Overall the snowpack is in poor shape and just putting a foot down in some places it was easy to break through the slab and fall to your waist in facets. 

Light snow fell through the day will little daytime accumulation. The storm was well distributed with 3-4" in all the areas we rode today. Winds were calm and the sun tried to break through the clouds but it remained mostly cloudy. 

After riding around in Miller zone rode up towards the east Crown Butte avalanche from this week to take a look!

Dug near the old cabin structure HS 100cm -140cm  in area

210  deg aspect, @ 9380 ' on a 10deg slope

HS 110cm, ECTP28 on 3-4mm facets 20 cm up from ground. 

Notes: solars and low elevation slopes formed a thin breakable crust over the last three days, under the crust in many places is a thin layer of faceting snow on top of a hard slab. 

From email: "Some natural wet loose and PWL avalanches that happened yesterday, 01/30/2024, in Sheep Creek (observed today). Less collapsing today also."

This avalanche occurred between noon and 4pm on Tuesday, 30 January. It was likely snowmobile trifggered. An adjacent path went naturally on Friday, 26 January.

Good views today of upper elevation alpine terrain north of Cooke City. Snow remained cold on all aspects will late in the day above 9500'. The exception was steep west and south-facing terrain that had many small point releases. These were multiple loose wet avalanches on the west side of Scotch Bonnet, each of the Rasta Chutes had debris in them and looked recent, probably this afternoon. Just north of the Rastas, we saw a crown of an avalanche, whether that was recent or not was difficult to tell. 

Spotted a recent natural avalanche on a south-southeast aspect on Mineral Mountain from Cooke City. I assume this was a wet slab avalanche. I can see roller balls and possible small wet loose slides on similar aspects with binoculars. 

Observed quite a few avalanches at the head of Republic Valley today. D1-D2. Range. Looked to be 2-3 days old on various aspects. primarily North-Northwest facing.

attached a few photos. Did not get a good shot of The headwall off Republic peak but that had also slid

West facing slope 9600' on Woody Ridge, North of the "Ozarks." Appeared to be new 1/29. Observed numerous older crowns and avalanches on all aspects throughout the day. Lots of whoomphing and collapsing, enough to shake small trees. Sorry the images arent great. 

A rider from MN triggered an avalanche immediately north of Round Lake. He was caught, pulled his airbag and was buried with his head out, under his sled. He attributes this to his airbag. His partners dug him out and he was uninjured.

We rode to the cabins in Fisher Creek and skied up Wades World. A slide from last week was visible and we dug a few hundred feet above it. A 70 cm wind slab broke on the facets in our stability test and also in the avalanche. We got 2 large collapses as we approached the crown of the slide and another an hour later near Henderson Mtn. On Henderson Bench we could see 2 new avalanches that looked fresh, possibly cornice triggered. It was not windy, so windloading was not the trigger. Regardless, it was disconcerting. Across the Fisher Creek valley we could see a slide on the nose of Sheep Mountain on the same slope that killed a snowmobiler in 2015.

Whumpfs yesterday and today, recent slides, and a poor snow structure is worrisome.

This avalanche released naturally on 1/29/2024. It was seen from the Miller Creek road and looks similar to all the other avalanches in the area.

We skied onto the debris of the Henderson Mountain avalanche. It went as wide as it could and broke under the dense wind slab on facets (not surface hoar). We dug in the flank at about 10,100' to confirm that it released on facets under a wind slab. Afterward we skied over to Daisy Pass and had numerous large, thunderous whumps, both there and back. At Daisy Pass/Chimney Rock avalanche (from 1/25) we had poor visibility and could not see the debris or paths. I skied out looking for signs, but decided that wandering in runout zones with no visibility was a bad idea, so we returned back to the sleds on Henderson Bench.

Whumping on approach when not is snowmobile tracks. Dug a pit on a north east face slope off the Miller creek road approach to daisy pass at ≈ 9000ft . Shallow snow pack 110cm. Ectp 10 60 cm from ground 26 deg slope. Choose to ski low angle south west facing slope with no terrain above. No recent natural slides were observed. 

Toured up Republic Creek, skied both East and west facing. Dug three pits, two west facing, one east facing.  Similar results on all three.

Pit 1 W facing 8750

Hs 84 f

75 4f

63 1f

50f  ECTP 14

404f

20 crust

4f to f below crust

Pit 2 WNW facing 9750

HS 115

ECTP 11 @ 78CM.  January storm slab to December facets 1f to f

Pit 3 E facing 8500

HS 90

ECTP 10 60CM St January storm slab to December facets 1f to f

Slide right off groomed trail near Chimney Rock 

Looks like a natural slide on the SW face of Crown Butte/ Bull of the Woods pass. Spoke with some skiers that thought it slide morning of 01/25/2024.

Couple days old [1/23 or 24]. Better light on it today. S aspect. 9800'

19° at 11:00 a.m. under overcast skies but warmed up when the sun came out. 

(Photos by T. Parrie)