Large avalanche in Taylor-Hilgard

Koch Peak
Southern Madison
Code
HS-N-R3-D3
Aspect Range
N-NE
Latitude
45.03670
Longitude
-111.45900
Notes

From an email:

We rode back to the wilderness boundary in Bear Creek on Buck Ridge today.  The riding was pretty good; new snow from earlier in the week had some wind effect but there were very few hard wind slabs to be found (maybe on the highest most exposed ridges).  The day started calm but the wind picked up after noon.  We didn’t notice any freshly drifting snow but some of the southern exposures were getting a little wet. 

We didn’t see any recent avalanches in the terrain on or immediately around Buck, however we did spot 1 medium and one older, large avalanche in the Taylor-Hilgard range.  The northern most one was smaller and was a pocket just below a ridgetop that appeared to be very wind loaded.  The other appeared to be an entire basin that had slid, the crown was visible around the upper third of the bowl and there was a large, coarse debris pile in the bottom.  This one was east of Koch Peak, above tumbledown creek.  Couldn’t get a good picture of either but could see through binoculars pretty well.  Aspect on both was N/ NE and both slid before the snow earlier this week, hard to say when. 

(estimated 4/02, GNFAC)

Number caught
0
Number buried
0
Avalanche Type
Hard slab avalanche
Trigger
Natural trigger
R size
3
D size
3
Problem Type
Persistent Weak Layer
Snow Observation Source
Slab Thickness units
centimeters
Single / Multiple / Red Flag
Multiple Avalanches
Advisory Year