Rider triggered avalanche on crown butte. Saw and heard reports of small rider/skier triggered wind slabs North of Cooke City.
Riders north of Cooke City on 2/16/23 saw an avalanche that appeared to be recently snowmobile triggered.
AAI pro 1 back in beehive. No signs of avalanche activity in the last 48 hrs. Improving bond between new snow and interface, even on solar crusts. Dug in thin W @9200 ft (HS 120-160), found poor structure with 3-5mm depth hoar in 2/6 pits, hard ECTP results in those 2. That being said this site was not representative of the general snowpack, HS tended to be over 200, especially on E above 9k. New snow issues decreasing, seems possible to find PWL in this area, would be suspicious of thin alpine. Solar crusts beginning to form on S and W, NSF and surface hoar development on all aspects in the am, cooked on solar but preserved on N, E.
We toured up to the Skillet today. We noticed that winds from the NE had drifted the 4-6" of storm snow throughout Bacon Rind. The wind drifting is a bigger concern in the less sheltered areas of Bacon Rind. We dug two pits on a SE aspect at 7500', and 8,600'. There is a melt freeze crust sitting atop a layer of facets 4-6" below the surface, and this propagated easily in our pits (ECTP 3, ECTP 11). This is not a concern now, but it could be when new snow falls on this weak snow. Next, we dug a pit in the meadow to the south of the Skillet at 8,800'. We found surface hoar 14" below the surface, and it did not propagate in our test. In our pit at the top of the Skillet, we did not see propagation either. The terrain we were in today is trending towards stability.
