Yellowstone Ski Tours

Skied phenomenal. So signs of instability.

Had my ECT propagate with an extra 10 taps from the shoulder. Fairly solid bridge there, but definitely weak snow near the ground.

Sort of ridiculous how little that snow has settled.! Did note though, that the ridgeline just above the pit location was dramatically wind affected (from west winds), which probably had something to do with the XL natural avalanche on the nearby Fin. (Also checked my notes from Jan. 4th, which reported widespread surface hoar in this area. Could be the culprit).

Surface snow: was slightly winded in places (westerly wind), also found quite a bit of surface hoar up to 10,000' +, as well as some thin sun crusts developing on the solar slopes up to 9500'.

Snowpit location doesn't see a lot of direct sun this time of year, despite being in an open meadow, and east facing.

Minor, localized cracking experienced. Light wind effect in general.

Surface snow in the bowl had widespread wind effect, from the recent NW winds (2" thick, supportable wind slab in many places). Also, pit location sees a fair bit of sluff/ avalanche debris, from the steep terrain above.

In the upper elevations today, the new snow was generally wind affected, in the form of 1f wind slabs, and reactive to ski cuts (4-6" deep).

Good/ supportable corn skiing.