Snow Observations List

Toured to the ramp and Bradley's Meadow on 11/25 around noon. Temperature was 45 F and wind was calm. Snow surface was moist 5-10cm deep on most slopes. The snow surface on shady slopes above about 8,000' remained dry, despite temperatures above freezing at all elevations.

I dug one pit at the top of Bradley's Meadow where it is moderately wind-loaded on the south end, east aspect at 7,800', and one pit halfway up the Ramp on northeast aspect at 8,200'. Both were just over 2 feet deep. I had ECTNs below the recent storm/wind-drifted snow, on a layer of small (0.5-1mm) faceted crystals. Lower half of snowpack had layers of 1-2mm facets, but supportable and generally stable for now. 

Skied out to the head of beehive basin for a fitness / recon tour. Made it about halfway up the head wall to the pass between Beehive and the Mirror lake basin. At lower aspects boot top powder with surface hoar predominated with patches of breakable sun crust. Higher in the basin (2800-2900m) south facing aspects were thin, windblown, and sun effected. Ski conditions were completely breakable sun crust by apx 5pm. Lots of moving snow on south facing aspects. I did not dig a pit. See attached photos. In the panorama, most of the chutes to the right of the arrow (4th of July couloir) had slid, it looked like it was mostly limited releases from sun warmed rocks. I did not see any natural slides to the left of the arrow. 

Surface boar forming in sunny spots at lower elevations

Pin wheels coming down on south facing road cuts

Backside skiing was already getting heavy just after 10, reasonably heavily trafficked since last storm, someone ski cut just below cornice with no movement.

Front side has a supportable sun crust under the last 4" storm

Well developed surface hoar was widespread this morning near Cooke City. The strong sun burned it off on aspects that received sun, but it was preserved in shaded areas. Strong south winds picked up in the afternoon in the Sheep creek drainage. We dug two pits (ectx both times) and a shovel shear test just below sunset peak, and found stable snow. 

Just wanted to share a few photos and videos of how windy it was up at Bridger today. The strongest winds/gusts were mostly mid-mountain and were blowing from the North-Northwest. Lots of snow moving around and stripping of snow surfaces as the videos show. 

Hey guys, wanted to share about a small avalanche I set off today. Snow was getting warm on my way up 4th of July couloir (pinwheels coming off lookers right wall started around 11:30) top half took a long time due to deep snow so I was suspicious of the pinch. Ski cut it during the descent (12:30p) and set off a wet slide (point release) that picked up quite a bit of steam as it came out the bottom. Big enough to injure/bury a skier.

Moderate to strong wind at mid mountain level with visible transport across and down slope in many locations. Skiing conditions deteriorating in wind affected zones. 

From IG Message: "I read the avalanche report this morning and felt comfortable skiing. we made a plan to ski Bradley’s Meadows but ended up skiing Bridger Gully to the 3 Bears after discussion and feeling comfortable and confident in the snowpack. we did not experience any whoompfing or have any other concerns on the approach. 

The bottom of Bridger Gully to 3 Bears is where I triggered the avalanche. My partner dropped in first and skied safely out of the potential slide area. I followed up and on my first turn, triggered the slide. To me it looked like it was around 8” deep and was around 15’ wide at the crown.

My partner had eyes on me the entire time as the slide carried me about 40-45 yards. I was on top the entire time and was able to ski out at the end. I suffered no injuries. 

We skied out and talked to other skiers about our experience."

Saw a small avalanche on a steep roll over below the nose. Looked like it could've been human triggered.

Strong to moderate winds at middle elevations trending from the north but also swirling quite a bit. Active windloading observed on ESE slope at 7800ft

At 1:30pm on 11/23 I intentionally triggered a fresh drift of snow in a narrow avalanche path along the edge of the north bowl at Bridger. Northeast aspect at 7,600’ elevation. The crown was 6-8” deep consisting of snow that fell today, 20’ wide and ran 250’ vertical. SS-ASc-R2-D1.5-I. 

Wind was moderate, gusting strong out of the north and west and transporting snow. There were 3-4” on lower mountain and 7-8” new up high. Snowpack is 1-2’ deep. Prior to this storm, snow close to the surface had turned to small (1-1.5mm) facets during previous cold weather, capped by a thin crust (wind or sun) on many slopes. 

From IG message: "We saw a few decent sized point releases in the same zone on Sunday, 11/20, the day after the wind slab. All occurred on SW aspect within approx 15 min at 2:30. The air temp rose noteably shortly before and the sun was baking the SW aspect."

A snowmobiler noted cracking of the snow surface on the south face of Reas Peak out of Island Park. The wind crust was 3-4" thick and had facets underneath which aided the propagation.

During our trek up to Narcolepsy and the Champagne climbs, we observed a large amount of surface hoar atop the snow. There were large (1/4-1/2”) flat crystals growing from the snow sitting on a small icy faceted layer. It seemed to be widespread and was found throughout most of the canyon. We figured this may cause instability during the next snow accumulation.

En route to Narcolepsy, we encountered waist deep powder and very unconsolidated snow. Even higher up near the climb we did not find any evidence of wind slabs or consolidated snow. We did witness a small loose snow avalanche on a sun exposed slope with an obvious fan caused from the moving snow.

Went touring within Bridger Bowl's currently closed boundaries yesterday. The week of cold temperatures and lack of precip has done a number on the snow in terms of quality. Below the tops of PK and Alpine lift, all aspects have been wind affected. There is very little fresh snow available for transport anymore (at least below the ridge). I dug a little pit going up towards the fingers from PK. HS was 43cm. The base layer had a sugary, square-ish look to it, likely faceting rounds. The temperatures yesterday were mild and sunny and the winds were low. 

Loud pow, obvious near surface faceting on most slopes, thin breakable sun crust on S aspects, wind affected on unprotected NW aspects at ridge line, ECTX x2, lots of deadfall, still too thin in many places for enjoyable skiing

My partner and I were skinning up a west-facing slope in Beehive Basin when we stopped out of the wind at a large rock outcrop.

Shortly after stopping to re-assess, a small, wind-deposited, pocket of snow popped off the rock face above us triggering a soft-slab slide which gained momentum and stepped down through a rocky choke, fanning out in the open face below the rocks, before coming to a stop directly at our skis. 

We witnessed no additional natural avalanches that day or found any significant instabilities in the snowpack on adjacent slopes. We can only attribute our near-miss to luck, if the avalanche had occured five minutes before we stopped (while skinning across the slope), or five minutes after (while continuing upslope to our desired objective), our day might have ended quite differently. 

Shallow reactive wind slabs up above Alpine lift at about 10:30 AM

triggered a small wind slab in sluice box today. this was not a surprise as all of the wind loaded areas had shown cracking and instability on the way up. though these other areas exhibited the same instability, this little pocket in sluice was the only spot steep enough to run. wanted to stop and measure slope angle but the dog was getting cold

Toured into divide basin on Friday. Looking at the north face of hyalite peak we saw a slide that went to the ground, and was about 150 feet wide. It possible this slide propagated further, but severe wind loading was actively occurring and it was hard to tell if the crown had been filled back in. We dug a pit at 9300 feet on a SÉ aspect and found a 80-100 cm HS and right side up snow pack with minor faceting below a crust 30 cm from the bottom.