Photos

From 5/13/22: "saw a lot of recent slide activity on East facing slopes above 9000’ in Blackmore and adjacent basins. This one was at around 9800’ between Blackmore and Elephant Peak. Also the wind was ripping up top in the afternoon. Moving a lot of snow from W to E." Photo: JR Mooney

From 5/15/22: "...There were some older crowns below a cornice to the north of mt fox (second photo) with slide debris that extended down the whole face (600ft). Likely slid during a storm within the last week." Photo: C. Chupik

From obs 5/15/22: "We saw a point release that mobilized a slab of new snow on an East facing slope off of mt fox in cooke city. The new snow had heated up considerably during the day on Sunday. There were some older crowns below a cornice to the north of mt fox (second photo) with slide debris that extended down the whole face (600ft). Likely slid during a storm within the last week." Photo: C. Chupik

Natural avalanche that occurred at Bridger early on 5/9/22. There were many similar depth natural crowns along the ridge that broke within the recent snow that fell over the weekend.

Crown of a natural avalanche that occurred at Bridger on 5/9/22. There were many similar depth natural crowns along the ridge that broke within the recent snow that fell over the weekend.

Crown of a natural avalanche that occurred at Bridger on 5/9/22. There were many similar depth natural crowns along the ridge that broke within the recent snow that fell over the weekend.

Obs 5/9/22: "found an intact graupel layer buried by 10-14” of fresh snow. Got cracking on it (ectn 17, ct 18) but no propagation. Also saw lots old of storm slabs/wind slab crowns."

Natural slab avalanche on Crown Butte. Appears to be a wet slab that likely occurred 5/3 or 5/4/22. This same slope slid after a heavy snow storm on 4/23. Photo: @markass406

"Recent natural, slab avalanche, near Cooke City.  A northerly aspect around 9,000'.  It looks like it happened late morning yesterday, May 4th." Photo: B. Fredlund

Natural wet loose avalanche in Beehive Basin. Occurred on Wednesday 5/4 after new snow fell on Tuesday.

Wet loose snow avalanches of recent 6" of snow. They likely occurred when the sun came out Wednesday morning, or at the end of the storm on Tuesday. GNFAC

"5/3/22 at approximately 4:00pm a storm slab avalanche occurred in beehive basin on a west aspect @9000 ft. This slab was 6-8” deep and propagated around 50’. No one was buried, however we aren’t sure if anyone was caught because we were not the party who triggered this avalanche. We did witness the party drop in but quick went out of sight." Photo: H. Bigos-Lowe

From obs 5/1/22: "This morning we toured south of Flathead Pass to check out the conditions. We noticed on our way up that the freezing line was ~7500 ft. The punchy and wet surface crust became quite supportive and icy at this altitude. We dug a pit at ~7900ft on a NE aspect. At this location, the overnight snow totaled only 2cm but we observed more significant wind deposition in and around the trees of about 10cm. Our shovel shear tests resulted in an easy shear at 120cm and hard shear (Q1) at 90cm. We saw no results from the ECT but, upon shearing the ECT block, we were able to pop off the block at 90cm with a surprising amount of energy (see photo). This block was quite consolidated, so much so that it remained intact as we pushed it out of the pit. With this observation, we stayed off steeper terrain today and will be looking for increased instability at this interface as temperatures warm." Photo: E. Shreier

From 4/30/22: "...there were several wet loose avalanches at Bridger today. Some with ~5cm of snow on top, maybe from yesterday or earlier in the week, and some new this morning. We watched a relatively slow moving natural size 2 come down Colter's area around 10:30. We also ski cut a size 1.5 from the skiers right of the Lower Nose (NE asp) around 9:45 which ran on the melt freeze crust from earlier this week. It moved slowly but I was surprised by how much mass it entrained. A couple other ski cuts just above had produced smaller size 1s. The debris stopped on top of an older debris pile which was significantly larger and had run significantly further. (You can kind of see the difference in the photo). There was also widespread roller balling and pinwheeling on all aspects and elevations. Note - sizes are D sizes..." Photo: N. de Leeuw

On Saturday 4/30/22, skiers triggered this new snow slide in a meadow descending into bear basin. Sun affected, new snow sliding. Photo: P. Smoral

From obs (4/27/22) : "This morning we toured up to Gallatin Peak from Beehive Basin.... At the base of the peak we observed the remnants of a small natural slab". Photo: E. Schreier

Avalanche on the NW face of Crown Butte. Estimated 4/24/22. Photo taken 4/25/22. Photo: M. Sirounian

From email: "Saw debris from a fairly recent slab avi that slid in lookers right of arrowhead bowl (tough to see in photo but the crowns appeared to be a couple feet deep).  There were a bunch of other debris piles on similar aspects but I was too far for photos.  They probably slid on Friday night [4/22/22] as the debris had a few inches on top. "

From email: "I'd hypothesize that this avalanche might have happened sometime yesterday.  There was a light rain event on April 21, and an associated widespread (but minor) wet loose avalanche cycle on steep northerly aspects the same day.  And it appears from the photo that the slab avalanche might have happened subsequent to all the roller ball/ well loose activity.  Yesterday was very warm here also, with a high of 47 deg F at the NE Entrance at noon." B. Fredlund