Snow Observations List

The Snow Ranger crew was out on Buck Ridge today.  We did not see any new slides around Beaver Creek, 1st Yellowmule, or Slatts Hill/ upper Buck Creek.  It began snowing before we made it to the McAtee/ 3rd Yellowmule area but from what we could see, it looked like the N/NE faces in McAtee that slid just over a week ago had avalanched again, nearly to the ground.  There were slightly dirty looking debris piles mid slope and several prominant crowns just below the ridge top but it was hard to make out details through the light snow, even with binoculars.

While traveling to Big Sky from Ennis, I noticed a large avalanche on the east face of Fan Mt.

Crown appears to start at approx. the 9500' elevation with a vertical drop of at least 2000'.  Crown appears to be 200-300 yards wide

White touring in the History Rock area, I spotted a couple of recent slides on the NW shoulder of Mt. Blackmore. From a distance, these look like dry-loose slides on the recent snow interface around 8,500ft. on a N-NE aspect.

Otherwise, 12-20cm of new snow was present in the area (~ HS 80-115cm), with evidence of wind loading on east aspects, and scouring on west aspects. No other signs of instability were observed.

Shot from the top of Flanders, ~1400 this afternoon, 3/3/2024. Big slide(s) on Arden and in Maid of the Mist.

Looks like the skin track and ski track between the two slides got taken out. At first glance from across the way it looked like the skin track was crossing over the debris, but when zoomed in it looks like the debris overran the skin track and the ski track.

From email: "Two big avalanches observed above the “plug” east of Cooke city. on my ride over this AM. One ran to the road, unclear if it went over it and maybe the groomer ran over the debris. Appear natural or possibly snowmo triggered? " 

We rode near the Throne today 03/03/2024. From the truck driving up and down canyon, we saw several natural loose snow avalanches that broke beneath ridgelines and one slab avalanche near Bridger Peak. While riding into the Throne we saw a large natural avalanche south of Ross Peak that likely happened early this morning. Many slopes steeper than 30 degrees had numerous natural and a few human-triggered slough avalanches that entrained storm snow from the last 24 hours, some also entraining snow that fell on Friday as well. These avalanches were large enough to bury a rider or skier. 

Near the throne on an east-facing slope at 7300', we dug a snow pit and found 23" of new snow that had fallen since Friday equaling 2.1" of snow water equivalent. 14" inches of this fell late last night (0.75" of SWE). Our stability tests yielded ECTN12 results below the new snow. Recent snow made up a little less than half of our snow pit height (HS 133 with 54 cms of new snow since Friday). 

Wind remained calm today where we rode, but all day we saw snow being transported at the ridgeline above. Storm totals were well distributed and at all aspects and elevations we rode we found roughly 20" of recent snow. 

From IG on 3/3/24. Natural on Wolverine and natural between Miller and Sunset. Looked like they went today or yesterday.

We saw one avalanche on a southeast facing slope. At about 7,400’ on a North facing slope we experienced a valley shaking whumpf while traveling up a heavily used ski track. 

Remotely triggered a large avalanche on a N aspect at 9500 ft while ascending a ridge line [in Mill Creek, Absaroka]. We estimated the slide to be D3 R3. The crown spanned roughly 1400ft +/- and ranged between roughly 1-5ft deep. They appeared to be 2 distinct layers in the crown profile, one of recent ‘storm’ snow and a lower one above old facets. This was observed from a distance. Witnessed large trees being shaken by the slide and smaller ones completely breaking. The bottom of the run out became much more planar indicating the sheer volume of debris that filled in. Extremely powerful to witness such energy and destruction. All persons in the party were in safe terrain with no intention to ski this slope at all. 

Noticed the pictured recent avalanche on an east facing aspect in the alpine of Beehive Basin. I would estimate it at a D2 size slide. It seems to have been naturally triggered by cornice fall and likely stepped down to older faceted snow deeper in the snowpack. 

Toured from the buffalo horn pass trail head to the pass itself. I didn’t go super high only a little over 8600’. I was shocked by the stability the snowpack showed however. I only had 1 collapse all day and that was at the trailhead. I wasn’t getting cracking at my feet. I definitely don’t trust the snowpack but it is the least reactive place I’ve seen yet to a fresh dump. Definitely some recent wind loading up high. I’d say a foot of new snow at the pass itself and 8” at the trailhead. 

Mellow ski/split tour up to ridge from the pass day after the storm. Fresh snow in trees was 4-6”, in meadows fresh snow had moved around & was trace to a foot. Tops of trees had snow blown off, ridge itself was windswept & trees were coated in rime/hoar.

We stuck to terrain <30 degree slope and observed no avvy sign. Fun ski down, especially upper glades, & we were there only tracks out there once we got out of the lower meadows.

We were skiing out of the Cabin Creek cabin over the weekend, mostly in the low angle terrain around Skyline Ridge. Throughout the storm on Saturday and after the clouds cleared on Sunday we experienced consistent whumpfing while breaking trail. Some were larger and some were smaller, usually triggered by the person breaking trail but some of the larger ones were triggered by the second or third skier in the track.

Pictures of an avalanche on Henderson Mountain just south of Lulu Pass taken on 3.3.24 (avalanche ocurred on 3.2.24).

Just wanted to pass along some high-resolution images in case they are helpful for future education.

Thanks for all you do!

-Alyssa Barrett

Toured to the zipper for some 25° meadows and while the skiing was excellent, the stability was not. We triggered numerous thundering whumphs and got shooting cracks, the largest of which propagated at least 100' wide! See snow profile attached with test results.

6" snow since Friday at 6000' in Mill Creek, very strong winds last night. Observed this large avalanche on an east face at treeline, appears to have failed on the weak snow at the base of the snowpack. Additional crowns observed in the bowls and chutes above it (these have been repeat offenders this season). 

Continued signs of instability on a tour in Maid of the Mist Basin. A couple large collapses down low in the trees, wind slabs above tree line on variable aspects due to swirling wind up high. Large avalanche crown (10’ - 12’ in places) at the back of the basin which looked to have been trigger from cornice fall 3-4 days ago. ECTP 28 55cm off of ground on a 5cm thick layer of facets. Pit was dug on an east facing slope at 9,100 feet. 

Secondhand photo and story regarding two snowmobilers sidehilling the northwest aspect of Twin Peaks and triggering the slide in the photos.  They were both able to ride out of it.  This avalanche is located about 150 yards north of the Twin Peaks avalanche accident site from January 2024.

Guides at Beartooth Powder Guides saw numerous natural avalanches near Cooke City. They noted new snow avalanches on most slopes steeper than 30 degrees. Additionally, they saw several avalanches that broke several feet deep on east, southeast, and southwest-facing terrain. 

From IG 3/2: A skier triggered this slide in the Bridgers.