Bridger Range

Lots of 9''-10'' soft slabs running on the overnight snow/Thursdays density change interface, pretty much one side to the other on the East face. Mostly naturals, one skier triggered. D'oh!

We rode up to Fairy Lake today and skinned to the top of the ridge between Fairy and Frazier basin. It snowed all day and visibility was limited; no recent avalanches were seen. One thing we noted was how little wind effect was present in this zone. Winds have been abnormally calm in the Bridger range the last few days, and many spots that are typically scoured, had full coverage. 

We dug a snowpit on SE aspect at 8550'. It was 5' deep, with nearly 21" of new snow. The base of the snowpack consisted of several decomposing melt-freeze crusts and facets. We did not get unstable test results in this pit. 

The snow that fell in the last 24 hours, came in upside-down (temperatures began cold, and ended warm). This was noticeable while breaking trail and skiing down. 

We did not note any cracking or collapsing. Despite seeing no red flags, we still recognize that the Bridgers have received 2+ feet of new, dense snow this week with little respite between storms. We stuck to our conservative travel plan and avoided slopes steeper than 30 degrees. Thankfully, there's tons of great low-angle powder skiing and riding to be had out there! 

This is from yesterday (202-01-01):

Low visibility, but we saw a few size 1 Dry Loose avalanches out of unskiable cliffy terrain.

Got one whumpf in a small willowy meadow near Ainger Lake. This occurred when one person took his skis off and sunk nearly to the ground. The rest of the group had already transitioned and stomped around in this spot without any reactivity.

In exposed lee terrain there was an unreactive windslab form the previous day (2024-12-31) buried by 5-10cm of new snow when we arrived. It snowed S-1 to S2 all day, winds were moderate gusting strong on ridges, but calm or light elsewhere.

Good powder skiing, no cracking or collapsing observed in the storm snow. 

Overview photo E facing storm slab N Bridgers 1 Jan 2024

 E-facing storm slab N Bridgers 1 Jan 2024

There were many large storm slab avalanches in the northern Bridgers on Monday and Tuesday during the avalanche warning. Photo: C Kussmaul