Cooke City

It broke on a convex rollover about 100 ft wide and ran about 80 ft. downslope. The crown averaged 30 inches and broke on sugary facets about 18 inches from the ground. Photo: Anonymous

It broke on a convex rollover about 100 ft wide and ran about 80 ft. downslope. The crown averaged 30 inches and broke on sugary facets about 18 inches from the ground. Photo: Anonymous

Sunday morning 12/15 we were skiing just Southwest of Henderson Mountain between the road cuts. The first skier in our party remotely triggered this slide from a slightly lower angle aspect about 50 ft to the skiers left of the slide where the snowpack was shallower. It broke on a convex rollover about 100 ft wide and ran about 80 ft. downslope. The crown averaged 30 inches and broke on sugary facets about 18 inches from the ground. No one was caught.

We skied east and west aspects of Woody Ridge today.  It was snowing most of the day, with periods of heavy snowfall, which accumulated to about 4-5" of fresh throughout the day.

We found buried surface hoar in 3 different snowpits, on east and west aspects, between 9300-9700'.  In each place the SH was buried under about 25cms of new snow, and I would describe it as somewhat irregular/ inconsistent, and mixed with some other faceted snow types.  The SH crystals were generally about 2mm in size.

In our snowpit (file attached) at 9550', west aspect, HS 70, we had an ECTN12 at 45cms. (on that surface hoar layer).

No collapsing, no cracking.  No avalanche activity observed (low vis).

One additional note was that slopes exposed to the SW wind had a thin rime crust that appears to have formed last night.  The ridgeline was also noticeably rimed.  In areas this rime crust was up to 1cm thick and 1F hardness.  We were not finding this rime crust on leeward or sheltered slopes.

 Found preserved buried surface hoar approximately 15-20cms below the snow surface. 

Photo: Beartooth Mountain Guides 

Toured up to Midway meadows, observed no cracking or collapsing.  We found no propagation in our ECT at 8600' on a E aspect with HS 70cm. Found preserved buried surface hoar approximately 15-20cms below the snow surface.  Low tide in tree exit, but fun skiing!