Bridger Range

As of this morning this fresh snow is forming a layer that just slips right off the sun-baked ice underneath. Respectfully recommend level 4 "high" avy danger for the Bridgers. Bridger Bowl didn't accurately report the snow received. There's significantly more than 7". It was crotch-to-waist deep on much of the mountain. 

I observed the results of a wet slide avalanche within the first mile of Middle Cottonwood Creek Trail. The slide came down from the south side of the canyon (north facing), and crossed the trail at about 4-5' deep and 10' across at the trail with debris and into the creek at the creek crossing about .75 mile from the trailhead. The crown was only about 100' up the side of the canyon. The avalanche would've occurred earlier in the week, there was just the skiff of snow on it from the previous light snow (22nd?). In the rest of that section there are pinwheels all along that south canyon slope (north facing).

This is the 3rd wet slide I've seen in the last 3-4 weeks on Middle Cottonwood in the same region where the trail is on the south side of the creek (mile .4-.80 from summer trailhead). This area is easily accessible by hikers (I was running) and I've seen wet slides in that area 3 of the last 4 years once the sun hammers that south slope in the afternoon. I would expect more at the next warm spell after this current storm cycle.

We dug two pits on the Throne today, and we had an ECTX in each pit. One pit was on a north facing slope at 8,400' with 4.5' of snow (HS=136). There are weak layers in the bottom half of this pit. The second pit was south facing at 8,400' with 6' of snow (HS=180cm). In the south facing snowpit we found buried weak layers 1.5' below the surface, and there were facets at the bottom of the snowpack. Despite the spring like temperatures today, the south facing snowpit was dry throughout. We saw the top couple of inches of snow getting wet by late afternoon (~1400), but we did not see any avalanche activity from the warmup. The buried weak layers were not a concern today, but they could be this weekend with more snow on the way. 

PS: 5, PF: 25