21-22

Near to above freezing temperatures for 24hours

Skiers in Hyalite Canyon observed a small wind slab avalanche just below the ridgeline in Divide Cirque (below cornice on the peak in the center of the photo). Photo: T. Saulnier

Skiers near Bridger Bowl reported a thin snowpack with "a distinct crust at around 21 cm with a loose, semi-sugary layer of snow just above it from 21-27cm above the ground." Photo: H. Darby

Skiers in Beehive Basin observed pin wheels on a south-facing slope that are consistent with this weekend's warm temperatures. Unusual for late November in Montana! Photo: Dorje

Skiers in Beehive Basin observed a small slab avalanche and pin wheels on a south-facing slope. Photo: Dorje 

Today we went up beehive basin and dug a snow pit on a Southern facing slope. The snow pack there was 70-80cm. We had propagation on 10th hit from the elbow. Propagated at about 25cm in the snow pack.

On our way up there was very low coverage on the ground with lots of rocks sticking through and we were noticing lots of pin wheeling coming off of the western ridge. When we got up into the basin we noticed signs of slides and more pin wheeling. We never planned to ski anything in avy terrain today and are happy that we didn’t. Feel free to reach out if there are any questions. Hope this is helpful.

Toured up above Bridger Bowl onto Bradley's Meadow and above and onto the Ramp. Coverage down low is very poor. Near the top of the Alpine lift and onto the Meadow, coverage is quite a bit better. Still some rocks and logs visible onto the Ramp but snow skied better than anticipated. We dug our pit at the top of the Meadow at 7800 ft at 82º E. It was 50 cm deep. There was a distinct crust at around 21 cm with a loose, semi sugary layer of snow just above it from 21-27cm above the ground. The rest of the snowpack above and below the crust and weak layer was about 1F in hand hardness.

While on a tour today up hyalite to check out snow conditions, we didn’t see too much recent activity. Old rollers were observed on south faces but we’re almost covered up due to the wind from the past day. I noticed a small wind slab that pulled off a peak west of Divide, head of swan creek. We found 120cm snowpack below Hyalite Peak saddle (9700ft) with two problematic layers. We got an ECTP28 at 40cm due to a ugly layer of sugary facets. We also got a ECTP25 at 80cm which was a wind slab that formed over the past week.