Lionhead Range

Skinned across Hebgen Lake from the Kirkwood trailhead and ascended to the ridgeline above Trapper Creek. Snowpack was consistently 2-2.5ft deep throughout our tour. Got two small collapses on the ascent when we deviated from the established skin track. Dug on a SE facing slope at 9000 ft (just off the ridgeline) and got no results in an Extended Column Test (ECTX). The column smooshed under the shovel as I tapped, seemingly indicating that there wasn't enough of a cohesive slab above the weak layers. Got a larger collapse as we descended to a second snowpit site. Stopped and dug in the place where we got the whumpf. This pit was at 8500 ft on a south aspect. There was a thin melt-freeze crust over the basal facets here. This appears to be what gave the slab enough stiffness to propagate a fracture. ECTP12. Stepping out of skis you stepped all the way to the ground at both pit sites. 

With the recent load of new snow on weak snow near the ground, we developed a plan at the car to avoid all slopes steeper than 30 degrees and stuck to that plan. 

There was a natural avalanche on the landslide face above quake lake. The avalanche failed on a weak layers near the ground and broke several hundred feet wide. 

While touring up a low-angle ridge in the northern Lionhead, I experienced several large collapses, notably one that triggered a cornice fall from 50’ away. Another remote collapse caused about 500’ of an E facing bowl to propagate, but not slide. ~9200’ E-SE

There was a natural avalanche on the landslide face above quake lake. The avalanche failed on a weak layers near the ground and broke several hundred feet wide. 

We rode to Ski Hill then around and up onto Lionhead Ridge. We found buried surface hoar in both locations,1-1.5' deep, with soft sugary facets below. Along the ridge we had two small, but audible collapses, when we walked from our sleds to a snowpit. We had ECTP23 breaking on the weak layer a little over 1 foot deep with HS of 84.

Skies were overcast to obscured with light snowfall. 1-2" fell through the day, and light to moderate winds.

From obs on 12/29: "On our way out near the cabin I cut a line close to a creek to see if I could trigger something."