Snow Observations List

Observed collapsing and shooting cracks near top of meadows around 7700 feet. Dug a pit in this area as well. Snow was 80 cm deep. Our test yielded unstable results - ECTP 11 35cm down on the obvious surgery facets. Slab seemed to be stiffening with warmer temps. 

ECT P 7 at 7800ft and West-Northwest facing slope. Broke approx 6-8in from the top of the snow. A LOT of woofmping pretty much everywhere we went.

Heavy and wet snow from the top of the ridge down to the Bridger Bowl lot. Observed large pinwheels, old avy debris on 30 degree slopes. 2 finger facets 15cm down, depth hoar still intact and showed no signs of rounding. Shooting cracks underfoot while skinning.

We skied onto the debris of the Henderson Mountain avalanche. It went as wide as it could and broke under the dense wind slab on facets (not surface hoar). We dug in the flank at about 10,100' to confirm that it released on facets under a wind slab. Afterward we skied over to Daisy Pass and had numerous large, thunderous whumps, both there and back. At Daisy Pass/Chimney Rock avalanche (from 1/25) we had poor visibility and could not see the debris or paths. I skied out looking for signs, but decided that wandering in runout zones with no visibility was a bad idea, so we returned back to the sleds on Henderson Bench.

30+ whumps on any slope with wind slab deeper than 5”. Happened on slopes from 0-30 degrees stayed off of and away from anything steeper. 

 Slide triggered from above (ridge line) onto east facing slide path on Bridger Ridge. Knocked off microwave-sized cornice while skinning which fell and triggered the slope below. We had zero intention of skiing that slope or any like it on todays tour. Slide seemed to start very slowly and then propagated North (to the left in the pictures) before running down the slide path. Looking at the slope no parties or individuals were present around us or in the run out to the best of our observations. Not surprised by the instability at play and yet another reason to heed to the forecast. 

ETCP 7. Broke on top of the facet layer mid pack. Only change that was noticeable from last week is the warming from the bottom up of the snow pack making nerd candy sized facets on the base of the pack. Domino surface hoar between facet layers not as present. 28degree slope. Fracturing present on roll over below into middle. Pit was dug down the ridge from the cornice release slide east side of prayer flags from last weekend.
 

1/20/2024 ETCP7. Facets were smaller and surface hoar layer domino layer between the bottom 8in facet layer and next 8in facet layer present. Pit dug east side prayer flag up the ridge from cornice release into middle.

Well developed (2-3mm) surface hoar observed at the S shoulder of Bradley Meadows (at the top of the skin track). Some of the crystals had already been blown over, but most were still upright.  

We skied in the Bridger Range where unstable snow was not widespread, but does exist on previously wind-loaded slopes. Weak snow exists on all slopes, and where a wind slab sits over this weak snow you can trigger a dangerous avalanche. Attached pit profile from Hourglass shows a wind loaded slope, and other pit profile is in more sheltered terrain.

Slopes without a slab on top of the weak snowpack are less likely to produce a slab avalanche, but even the slightest bit of a supportable slab could easily break on the weak snowpack. Also, the sugary, weak snowpack is easily entrained by smaller slides causing more powerful loose snow slides on sustained steep terrain.

Wind was moderate at the ridge, but not transporting any snow. Light wind below the ridge. Temps near to above 0 C. Broken to Overcast skies.

Great walk, much better travel than other areas. Started noticing cracking, collapsing, and whumfing around 7800' on east facing slopes. ECTP 11 on our stability test. Much better snow than bacon rind and other similar areas.

Whumping on approach when not is snowmobile tracks. Dug a pit on a north east face slope off the Miller creek road approach to daisy pass at ≈ 9000ft . Shallow snow pack 110cm. Ectp 10 60 cm from ground 26 deg slope. Choose to ski low angle south west facing slope with no terrain above. No recent natural slides were observed. 

Starting at  45°11'13.26"N /  111°27'36.92"W, the NNE slope slid  (likely rider caused 2 days ago).
The adjacent slopes at  45°11'18.09"N / 111°27'54.78"W further west were slightly newer perhaps the 26th or late on the 25th. Each ripped down to the ground at the crown. Severe instability was present even when cresting over the slope from the entrance through the regular access to cedar - still not broke open.

Heard two large whumpfs when heading up the low angle slopes of Telemark Meadows. Dug a quick pit and found it was collapsing 30cm (rough estimate) deep on the second weak layer from the top. Lightly snowing, not much accumulation.

Conduction ECT test. 
Observed two well preserved layer of surface hoar
1st layer- 45 cm below surface. 3cm thick layer of surface hoar.

Went for a tour up to Blackmore today. We observed a few natural slides that released in the past few days. Most had relatively small crowns being 1foot, with crowns around 50 foot and ran short distances. We observed a rather large crown near the Blackmore summer trail just below the saddle that also released naturally and looked to have up to a 4 foot crown.

Went for a walk on skis in the low-elevation meadows below Blackmore and Elephant Mountain. Observed roller balls and snow glopping to our skins. Dug on a small NE facing test slope at 7760'. HS 48cm, ECTN12 & CT10 Q3 up 27cm on what looked like an old layer of buried surface hoar. A nice day for a low angle walk. 

Similar to your complete ripout of the slope at the head of first yellow mule, this aspect pulled out naturally likely on the 25th - natural caused. No tracks around.

South of two top north west of trail intersection #20. (saturday 1/27)

rode low angle stuff all day, creek bottom is normally not visible and its down to dirt. The whole area (south of two top) seemed really shallow and west facing slopes were very windswept when exposed, but filled in down low.

We found that the weak layers are all over the place after the warm weather and rain. Super faceted snowpack everywhere we went and even in low angle trees you could stick your hand in next to where a snowmobile track was and break a slab off. When rolling sleds over on a small hill we broke off lots of big 3' x 3' chunks down to the old really deep  weak layer.

We did not see any avalanches.

From IG message 1/26/24: "2nd yellowmule. Main north facing ridge. Whole thing ripped out. Appears like yesterday, but unsure. Massive slide."