The Southern Madison Range, Lionhead area near West Yellowstone and mountains around Cooke City:
Yesterday's calm weather allowed the snowpack to take a deep breath and start adjusting to last week's storm snow. This has helped overall stability. However, the pack is still far from achieving equilibrium.
There was a foot of new snow adding stress to the facets near the ground. This was on an east facing slope off the ridgeline. I did not get propagation in all my pits on this aspect, but did here. Eric triggered an avalanche two days ago a few hundred yards up the ridge on this aspect. As long as the buried facets continue to propagate, I'll be cautious. We did not ski the slope. Photo: GNFAC
New snow and strong winds produced a thick slab resting over facets. Although it took some force for the ECT to propagate, we did not trust the structure. Photo: GNFAC
The Southern Madison Range and Lionhead area near West Yellowstone:
In the southern Madison Range and Lionhead area near West Yellowstone heavy snowfall and strong winds are pushing a very weak snowpack past its breaking point. A pervasive layer of weak facets at or near the ground are failing catastrophically under the weight of the new snow, producing widespread natural and human triggered avalanches.
This is the SE bowl on Scotch Bonnet Mountain near Cooke City. The yellow line is roughly the location of the avalanche crown. About the same time this picture was taken, a rider triggered and was caught in an avalanche on the south end of Henderson Mtn near the burned area. Photo: GNFAC
The Lionhead area near West Yellowstone and the mountains around Cooke City:
Near West Yellowstone and Cooke City, the story is simple. Heavy snowfall and high winds have created very dangerous avalanche conditions. Storm totals over the past four days equal:
· 4 inches of SWE, totaling over 3 feet of snow, in the mountains around Cooke City.
· 2.9 inches of SWE, totaling over two feet of snow, in the mountains around West Yellowstone.
This slide occurred in either Cabin Creek or Tepee Basin in the southern Madison Range. Over a foot of dense snow has pushed many slopes past their breaking point. Photo Taylor DeTienne
