22-23

Skied out to the head of beehive basin for a fitness / recon tour. Made it about halfway up the head wall to the pass between Beehive and the Mirror lake basin. At lower aspects boot top powder with surface hoar predominated with patches of breakable sun crust. Higher in the basin (2800-2900m) south facing aspects were thin, windblown, and sun effected. Ski conditions were completely breakable sun crust by apx 5pm. Lots of moving snow on south facing aspects. I did not dig a pit. See attached photos. In the panorama, most of the chutes to the right of the arrow (4th of July couloir) had slid, it looked like it was mostly limited releases from sun warmed rocks. I did not see any natural slides to the left of the arrow. 

Some fresh bear tracks on the skintrack into Sheep Creek a few weekends back. Funny to share a route with the wildlife. They're still out and about, make sure to carry your bear spray for a few more weeks!

Toured to the ramp and Bradley's Meadow on 11/25 around noon. Temperature was 45 F and wind was calm. Snow surface was moist 5-10cm deep on most slopes. The snow surface on shady slopes above about 8,000' remained dry, despite temperatures above freezing at all elevations.

I dug one pit at the top of Bradley's Meadow where it is moderately wind-loaded on the south end, east aspect at 7,800', and one pit halfway up the Ramp on northeast aspect at 8,200'. Both were just over 2 feet deep. I had ECTNs below the recent storm/wind-drifted snow, on a layer of small (0.5-1mm) faceted crystals. Lower half of snowpack had layers of 1-2mm facets, but supportable and generally stable for now. 

Surface boar forming in sunny spots at lower elevations

Pin wheels coming down on south facing road cuts

Backside skiing was already getting heavy just after 10, reasonably heavily trafficked since last storm, someone ski cut just below cornice with no movement.

Front side has a supportable sun crust under the last 4" storm

From obs: "Well developed surface hoar was widespread this morning near Cooke City (11/25). The strong sun burned it off on aspects that received sun, but it was preserved in shaded areas." Photo: N. Salsburg

ECT Test Results

Location: 300ft below Lionhead Peak

Elevation: 9250ft

Aspect: East, 88deg

Slope Angle: 33°

Total Snow Depth: 115cm

Result: ECT 22, at 15cm deep (new snow interface).  At this location the top 10cm of new snow was loose, then 5cm of new snow formed into wind slab.  Remaining 100cm of snow ECTX, well consolidated, no visible layers, approx 2F hardness to the ground.  

Comments: Failure at the new snow interface seemed very spatially dependent.  We had an ECT 11 in another area. 

Skied multiple locations along Lionhead Ridge over 3 days, NE to E aspects.  Our observations were in line with the avalanche reports.  New snow was generally 15cm deep and weakly bonded to the existing snowpack.  There was minimal wind transport during this time along the more protected NE aspects along the ridge line, so the snow was not particularly wind loaded or consolidated.  Even so, there was multiple instances of small natural loose snow avalanches on steeper aspects or terrain rollovers.

Well developed surface hoar was widespread this morning near Cooke City. The strong sun burned it off on aspects that received sun, but it was preserved in shaded areas. Strong south winds picked up in the afternoon in the Sheep creek drainage. We dug two pits (ectx both times) and a shovel shear test just below sunset peak, and found stable snow.