Noticed crown and debris on drive up Bridger Canyon this morning. Looks like a wind slab.
Winds were ripping on the hike to Saddle Peak - almost knocking us over. If they had been just a few mph stronger, we would have been crawling. They were still finding snow to transport, and there were obvious plumes at discrete points along the ridge. Much of the snow was being blown to North Dakota while loading only in isolated places.
As soon as you got off the ridge, winds dropped to almost nothing, and we didn't find any wind slabs as we descended off the nose of Saddle into the North Central Gully. The skiing was excellent.
Further south, the bare rock area north of Bridger Peak had grown significantly as winds scoured a much larger area down to rock.
Skied a lap on Texas Meadow north of Bridger this afternoon. There were about 2" of new snow from today and 10-12" settled new snow that fell since last Friday. A few moderate gusts moved snow, but wind was not generally light. There was minimal fresh drifting, limited to ridgelines and openings in the trees.
A lot of ski tracks off the ridge north of the ski area. Only small loose snow slides were triggered from what I could tell, under mostly cloudy skies.
Snowpit at 7700', NE aspect showed a 6 foot deep, stable snowpack (profile attached). New snow creates the main avalanche concern, mainly where it is drifted into stiffer slabs. Dry Loose snow avalanches are a second concern for now.
Skier caught and carried approx 100 yards thru pinch of main pinnacle chute. Skier was not buried but did lose ski. Suspected culprit of avalanche was cornice drop or skier above sliding down into us. We observed little to no movement or activity before dropping into line besides prior day cornice drop slides. Slide footage can be found @0:55 mark of linked video
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHZhI6DMGse/?igsh=YWgxd3cyaGpzY3F5
It looked like there were several small wind slabs triggered on Saddle Peak. I was skiing with my family and didnt get a good look or a photo. One appeared to be just off the summit maybe 12" deep and not running very far at all. The other appeared to be near the going home chute even with the cliffs, and this one ran a bit further. These wind slabs looked like something to be looking for but also easy to avoid.
It looked like there were several small wind slabs triggered on Saddle Peak. I was skiing with my family and didnt get a good look or a photo. One appeared to be just off the summit maybe 12" deep and not running very far at all. The other appeared to be near the going home chute even with the cliffs, and this one ran a bit further. These wind slabs looked like something to be looking for but also easy to avoid.
The snow ranger crew was riding around the Bridgers today and we spotted this slide in the bowl to the south of Hardscrabble peak. It looked fairly recent (last 2 days) but a little hard to tell due to the new snow since yesterday and blowing snow today. Photo: USFS Snow Rangers
