Snow Observations List

Was splitboarding up near lions head ridge today. Made some bad decisions and kicked off a good slide in a NE facing chute. Was with 2 buddies, 1 of which skied the line 3 weeks ago.  Underneath about a foot of new powder snow there was a firm crust that seemed like it was old  hard windslab in the gut of the chute, and I think a sun crust on the riders left side(East aspect). We had 2 spots where we were planning to re group at, first was a small cubby area right before a slight rollover about 75 ft from the top. I dropped first, made some turns down toward the pulloff, as I pulled in, I triggered a good size slab that propagated maybe 40-50 ft across, at the rollover as I carved into the pulloff.  Pulled  all snow  out of the chute down to the ground. Seemed to have failed on sugary facets on ground/ice crust close to the ground... 

Clear, Light N Wind, No cracking, collapsing, or recent avalanche activity. Snow depth ranged from 6-12" at 8500' to ~2-3' at 9300' and above. Through that whole valley, there is a supportable crust that ranges from 2cm-5cm and is more or less supportable depending on sun exposure. In the trees and shaded areas, this crust doesn't exist. Any shallow and shady area is unsurprisingly a pile of sugary snow. Where the snow is deeper and has been getting sun there is a more layered snowpack. 

We were in Cooke for the last 3 days skiing around Republic Creek. North of town, the snowpack starts around 8700. South of town is holding snow better with its aspect. We skied and toured every aspect around Woody Ridge and Republic. Slopes that don’t see sun are holding “powder” from weeks ago, but are very rotten and easy to punch a pole down to the ground. Slopes that see the sun have an obvious crust layer. Snow depth varies from upwards of 4 feet in gullies to 1.5 feet in the valleys.  There was a very reactive wind slab from the dusting of snow and high wind that occurred over the holidays. We observed it to be 3 inches deep at its max. 

No avalanche activity was seen during a short tour south of Cooke City. ~1-1.5' of snow at low-mid elevations. Supportable crust on solar slopes with 3-4" of new snow on top. 

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"

Snowpit attached from today:  SW aspect, 9800', HS: 57.

Surfy/ supportable, good early season turns.  Though some signifiant collapsing experienced while trail breaking- on buried SH that formed on Halloween.

No avalanche activity to report.