Snow Observations List

Skinned up the large NW snowfield on Black Mountain on Saturday July 6 to lap what remained. Surprisingly, coverage was very good. We descended just after 11am. Turns on the shallower sun-exposed aspects on the way down triggered large sluffs which ran for ~200ft on the top 2-3 inches of the snow.

Photos taken 6/10/24 around 1pm. Wet slab in Republic Creek south of Cooke. I estimate 10-20’ deep and 1000’+ wide. The past 5-6 days have been warm, and previous night there was steady rain all night into the mid morning, so not out of the question that it happened within 24 hrs, likely within the last 1-3 days.

From IG message: "I was at the bottom of the Gardner Headwall when that avalanche happened. Feel free to share..."

At approximately 15:40 a D3 avalanche on the Gardiner headwall broke.  It was triggered by a snowboarder and his dog.  The run had already been tracked by skis and snow machines but the trigger point was slightly farther skier right and appeared to trigger a convex wind slab. 
 

Several skiers, boarders, and riders were in the area but there were no burials or injuries. 

Photos from IG messages on June 1 2024: "there were two riders and a dog on the slope. One rider was partially caught and rode out when everything stopped moving. The dog was very afraid and got stuck at the crown and rocks on the lookers left. Happened about 3pm today within the first 20 riders. Started with a small slide and propagated much larger when it got closer to the rocks."

I'm sure you don't need me to tell you there are wet slides all along the east side of the Bridgers,  but here I am telling you anyway.

I was riding my ATV up Olson Creek and took a few pictures from the top, but I was pretty far away for a cell phone...

If you want them, I'll send them over.

Toured into Beehive Basin today. The added snow from the storm this week made quite a difference in coverage (which was already still really good) and it looks like the middle of winter up there. Temps were warm and the snowpack felt homogenous and stable. Planned to ski peak 10602 but we noticed some wind loading and weather coming in so we toured up and around climbers left of the prow and skied down the climbers right side of it. Skinning in we saw a lot of wet loose avalanche debris and a couple slides that looked like they slid a couple days ago from the last storm. We heard multiple slides coming off of rocks and watched a cornice break off climbers left of 4th of July Couloir. We also saw some wet loose debris that slid on 10602 on our way out of the basin. By 10am it was very warm and the snow was wet, sticky and heavy. 

shooting cracks in the top 4 to 5 inches of new snow in middle basin

Toured to the top of PK during today’s storm. Snow was very wet and heavy. We saw no other slides or signs of instability on the way up. Coming down skiers right of flippers, all 3 of us caused small slides and cracking within the new snow. I triggered the largest slide, which was 6-8” deep and 12’ wide.

Wet snow avalanche at around 9300’ on a northwest aspect in Hyalite basin. Group opinions on crown height ranged from 1-5 feet - hard to tell from a distance. 

From email 5/16/24: "I saw the photo of the fisher peak avalanche on the website. Figured I could fill in the blanks. Not a natural slide, snowmobile triggered.

At approximately 12:15pm last Saturday I was climbing above fisher bench and unintentionally set off a slab avalanche on fisher peak. I was jumping the cornice at the ridge and had a massive slope collapse, followed by shooting cracks and propagation downslope. I was able to wheelie through the crown and sidehill above the slide away from the debris area.

5 minutes before my climb, another snowmobiler put a high mark 60 ft away from where I climbed with no results. There were numerous tracks on the slope prior to this avalanche, I found the weak spot. My riding partner was watching me from a safe zone further south, as we knew there was new snow instabilities to watch out for, at a minimum.

We rode all day Friday without any obvious instabilities on similar slopes. We didn’t see the sheep mountain slide Friday morning. I took some pictures of the slide right after it happened. See attached…"

Saw a few slides that look like they propagated across the layer of new snow from the last storm (as opposed to the characteristic spring wet snow point releases). The largest was the previously reported one from Sheep. On the way out we saw a smaller slide farther south along the same ridge that looked like it broke on the new snow interface, both NE aspects.

We also saw a similar slide on a N/NW aspect of Mt Zimmer. 
 

Hard to say from a distance when these broke, but the one on Mt Zimmer looked the most recent. 

From email 5/11/24: “Hey Guys, here are a few photos from the weekend. The sheep Mountain Avalanche was Snowmobile triggered on Friday and the fisher peak avalanche happened today. Maybe cornice drop?”

From IG message 5/10: "Made it most the way up Ross today turning around at the step up to the east shoulder. New snow is resting on a layer of graupel. New snow has not bonded to the old. CT12, Q2 at 90cm from the ground. HS=150cm'

Up on the Ridge this morning, the recent snow had developed a 3-5 cm crust, and remained moist underneath. No active signs of instability while the snow remained cold, except for the various crowns from slides which broke during the storm (Avalanche Gulch, North Bowl, etc.), and lots of rollerballs from yesterday. Within an hour of sunrise the surface crust began to break down, and small loose releases were beginning to rain down from cliffs and around the large cornices. The cornices, some reaching the size of a small car, were already visibly sagging and many smaller cornices easily released under body weight.

From IG story 5/8/24: "@mtavalanche remote triggers today in Cooke City. 2-4' of fresh north of round lake."

From email 5/8/24: "A few snaps from today. Observed several D2 slides between sluice box and the nose. I didn't see the toe of these slides, but it looked like there were running with some speed into mid elevation terrain. Slabs were most common in winded terrain, but slides flanked out on new/old interface and 4/26 crust (these layers are not very far apart) even in sheltered middle elevation terrain. Visibility was poor, but I'd expect to see similar large slides in steep, winded terrain

4/26 crust down:

55-60cm at 6500

65-70cm at bridger mid 

75+cm at ridgeline"

A skier near the top of the Alpine Lift at Bridger Bowl ski area took a photo of three avalanche crowns near Peter’s Point. 

A skier triggered an avalanche on a test slope in Beehive Basin, breaking 12-16" deep and 75' across. The slide failed within the new snow. 

Saw a very large crown on a north face of a peak west of the hyalite area. Potentially peak 9662. The crown appears to wrap around multiple aspects for about 1/4 mile. Seen from the Bridgers around noon on May 4th. Probably went during this weeks storm, but it looks to me like it was much deeper than a storm slab.