23-24

We rode to the the Fairy/Frazier Basin divide today to check out snow conditions and see what people had gotten up to over the weekend.  The new snow had settled to about 4" or so and we did not notice any wind affect at lower elevations on the road but did find some deeper drifts hiding in the lee pockets in the meadows higher up.  The climb up to the divide with Frazier only had 2-3 inches of fresh snow on it, and the saddle was nearly bare.  Under the new snow there is a in places stout crust from the warmup last week (and past wind) which made for unpredictable riding. There were slick spots, breakable spots, and some fresh drifts. The ridge lines all were scoured as expected from the recent wind but we did not see any significant recent avalanche activity in the new snow, only a couple very small pockets had slid near the ridge tops and these were few and far between.  

We had one collapse, 10-12' wide near treeline where there was a little more wind-loading/effect. Photo: GNFAC

We dug a snowpit at 9,761' on a west facing slope south of Cooke City. ECTP21, 40 cm below the surface (16" down). There was 6-8" of new snow from the weekend above 4" of soft old snow, on top of 4" of a pencil- hard slab, then the soft sugary facets to the ground. ECT broke below the hard slab at the top of the facets. Photo: GNFAC

This crack opened up above our snowpit as we made our exit away from the steeper terrain of the "Skillet" run toward low-angle trees. Photo: GNFAC

We triggered booming collapses and watched cracks shoot out across terrain features and snow shake off nearby trees for the entirety of our tour from the meadow near the car to the top of the Skillet. Photo: GNFAC