24-25

Gusty winds transporting snow in Taylor Fork on Saturday. Triggered a 4-5 inch deep wind slab that propagated about 50 ft at the top of a north east facing slope at 9,500 ft.

Photo: Anonymous

ESE aspect pit profile Yale Ck

South aspect pit profile Yale Ck

Dug a pit at 8650ft on a SE facing slope just a few miles west of Cooke City. ECTP15. Failed and propagated on facets underneath the most recent storm snow about 20cm down, didn't feel like a wind slab but presumably was partially wind loaded from the winds the past few days. Pretty much the entire snowpack under this recent layer is facets separated by crusts, with varying levels of crystal thickness, ranging from larger near the ground to finer higher up. HS 65cm.

We rode into Yale Creek just south of Sawtell peak in the Centennials. Thin snowpack that is mostly faceted. There was a slight rain/mist the night before and again in the afternoon with warm air moving into the area ahead of the approaching storm. The rain/mist created a zipper crust on top of the snowpack.

The snow under that zipper crust is faceted and weak. It will be the primary weak layer once a slab forms on top.

Toured into Flanders today with the goal of skiing the E bowl/SE glades. Winds on the way in were nearly non existent at lower elevations. As we gained elevation, winds increased significantly, but the snow in the E bowl where we skied was largely unaffected aside from a very thin wind skin. Snow on adjacent ridges was clearly being blown. Some good jumps on a small wind loaded test roll yielded no results and a quick hand pit showed a slab that was fairly well bonded to the layers below. The hand pit slab fractured within the old snow on a layer of small facets. Some ski pole probing in many locations showed a relatively consistent snowpack in terms of hardness, but the lower snowpack is certainly of the faceted variety.