Middle Peak Basin

Middle Peak Basin

Date
Activity
Skiing

My partner and I skied from Beehive into Middle and Bear Basin today. We noticed wind stripped aspects, lots of wind affect on the snow, and massive cornices along the ridgeline from Beehive to Middle Basin. We dug a pit at 9900 ft on our approach up to Middle Peak summit. The snowpack was deep here - I bottomed out my 280 cm probe and would assume at that location (45.4397, -111.3831) the snowpack is nearly 300cm deep. We dug a 120cm pit and got no reactive test results. The upper feet of the snowpack consists of new wind blown snow and pencil hard snow with a few noticeable density changes. One other thing to note was on the approach up to Middle Basin from Beehive and on our way out back to Beehive, ski penetration was often 30cm or above. In those thinner areas of the snowpack, it felt weaker and faceted underneath our feet. 

Region
Northern Madison
Location (from list)
Middle Basin
Observer Name
Haylee Darby