Hyalite Gully Wind Slabs

Hyalite Gully Wind Slabs

Date
Activity
Ice Climbing

Climb above Dribbles today. No surprise but where yesterday/last nights new snow has been drifted onto old snow, there is a wind slab problem. We found this combo in gullys above 8000 ft, slab depths to 50 cm, interface is 1-2mm FC. There are also graupel layers within the new snow that were reactive but less concern about those. We experienced numerous collapses and triggered a size 1 pocket that moved 6 in downhill. Just needs a steeper slope angle or a bit more slab and things will get interesting. 
 

Big picture with all the kooks coming to town for icefest it’s kind of funky conditions up there right now, lots of bare ice/rock making for a fall hazard in many places we normally don’t, and poor structure in the gullys, especially higher up. You can go from bare rock/ice to 1.5 m snow in just a couple steps. With continued wind and/or precip things could get active.

 

Region
Northern Gallatin
Location (from list)
Hyalite - main fork