A rider triggered this avalanche while side-hilling across the bottom of the slope. The rider was able to quickly turn downhill and avoid the slide. No one was caught. Photo: Anonymous
From interaction at the gas station:
“We were riding out from Island Park. We saw dramatic, collapses, and shooting cracks. I side-hilled a small slope and triggered it 1.5 to 2 feet deep. I have never seen such unstable snow.”
Toured Ramshorn Peak from the rd. closure in Tom Miner basin. On approach we observed continuous wumpfing and shooting cracks from 7,500' to 9,900'.
A hand shear on a 20° slope with a SE aspect at 7,800' sheared cleanly upon isolation. This hand shear was completed in a rather shallow (~10") snowpack, with large facets below a slab of thicker, fist dense snow.
Large roller balls were observed in avalanche terrain on a SE aspect at 8,300'. Alongside this observation, rather wet, sticky snow was observed throughout the tour, causing multiple glopping incidents on our skins.
A second hand shear was preformed on a E. aspect, 20° slope around 8,400', which easily sheared clean with light hand pressure. This snowpack was notably thicker than the previous hand shear location, measured closer to 30" with facets below a 6" slab of fist-dense snow.
Near our second hand shear, a 2' cornice on at 27° slope created a large shooting crack that propagated across the whole slope (contained by trees). If said cornice and slab was on a steeper slope, we are pretty sure this slab would've slid.
A several day old avalanche was also spotted on the windward portion of Ramshorn's SW shoulder around 9,800'. Upon further inspection, this slide seemed to be natural and had a crown of ~1.5' with a width of approximately 300'.
Clear evidence of recent wind events (e,g. Thursday's 75mph gusts) were clear on the SE face of Ramshorn, creating several inch thick wind slabs on the face and removing the majority of the snow above from the SW ridge and peak above 10,000'.
Skiers north of Cooke City near Zimmer Creek reported widespread cracking and collapsing. Both parties remotely triggered avalanches 150'+ away.
From obs: "Remote triggerd a D1 Avalanche from about 150' away. Crown was 1-2' deep. The debris ran onto an apron that was shared with a larger slope which subsequently triggered a larger D2 Avalanche that was about 100' wide with a 3'-4' crown."
From obs: "Remote triggered a D1 avalanche from about 150’ away from below in a meadow."
From obs: "Remote triggered a D1 avalanche from about 150’ away from below in a meadow." Photo: Noah Mattes
From obs: "Remote triggerd a D1 Avalanche from about 150' away. Crown was 1-2' deep. The debris ran onto an apron that was shared with a larger slope which subsequently triggered a larger D2 Avalanche that was about 100' wide with a 3'-4' crown. " Photo: B. Zavora
We toured up the ridge between Beehive and Bear Basin today. There was about 2-3 cm of fresh snow capping a breakable melt-freeze crust from yesterday. The crust was present on nearly every aspect and slope angle we traveled on (W-S-E). I suspect on steeper east aspects, which we did not tour on, this crust may not have been present.
As we approached the cornice-triggered slide from yesterday below the prayer flags, we stomped around on a low-angle east-facing test slope just south of the slide to assess the presence and character of the slab. Stomping on the test slope yielded 15' plus shooting cracks from my ski tips and remotely triggered cracks about 30' further down the slope below a rollover. A subsequent test slope north of yesterday's slide produced a whumpf. A significant chunk of that cornice is cracked and ready to collapse. While jumping on the test slope almost 100 feet away from the cornice, a small piece broke off and fell onto the slope below.
HS on the test slope was about 70 cm. Below yesterday's crust was about a 15-20 cm 4F to 1F slab overlying a pile of facets. The failure plane was at the facet/slab interface and the slab has stiffened since my last time at Beehive a week ago.
Wx: Calm winds, warm temps, broken skies giving way to scattered skies in the pm. No precip.
1 foot slab on 18 inches of sugar facet.
Remote triggered a D1 avalanche from about 150’ away from below in a meadow. Cracking and collapsing everywhere.
