Bridger Range

Today, we rode up to The Throne for the first time this season. We parked at the motorized boundary and toured up the east face. The road riding was good but there were certainly more dirt patches on the way out, than in, with the warm temps.

We dug two pits on the east face as we ascended. At 7950' we had HS: 78, ECTN13 + 23. At 8140', we got HS: 97, ECTN 30. We toured up the ridge and moved over onto a north aspect. There we got HS: 94, ECTN 30. We observed no cracking or collapsing. Weak layers still exist at the bottom of our snowpack, but we were happy to find that these weak layers in the Bridgers seem to be not quite as weak as in our other zones.

We had good visibility and were able to get eyes on two avalanches that occurred naturally during the major wind event yesterday in the bowl south of Naya Nuki. The largest of which was a R2-D1.5 that broke in the new snow. We also got eyes on a natural avalanche (R2-D2.5) that occurred yesterday on Saddle Peak.  

There was a natural avalanche on Saddle Peak on Wednesday, December 18. Strong winds ripped through new snow and loaded many slopes. The avalanche broke an estimated 250 feet wide, 1-3 feet deep, and ran 1500 vertical feet. Photo: T Barber

HS-ASr-R1-D1-I

Fraizer Basin, 8500', North facing, 35-37 degree slope, 1pm

Photo: T Guarino

HS-ASr-R1-D1-I

Fraizer Basin, 8500', North facing, 35-37 degree slope, 1pm

30' wide, 6'' deep, ran 150', In the love chutes, Fraizer Basin 

1Finger wind slab sitting on a 4Finger hardness break.  Triggered from 30' above the crown, ran slowly.  A majority of the slab rode back up on the surface 50' below the crown.  Bed surface felt like small grained facets under skis, didn't look too close. Small and localized cracks and collapses were felt and seen throughout the day in the same location.