Yellowstone Ski Tours

Lulu Pass

Westerly winds were blowing today, moving lots of snow along the high ridgelines. Snowpit was in a relatively deeper snowpack location. Was typically finding about HS 40-60cms. Near and along the ridgeline, I was getting lots of subtle collapsing and cracking (not making much sound- muffled by the new snow?), but the cracks were traveling 30' or more in many places.
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east 9595'

Observed some natural loose dry avalanches that ran today on steep north facing terrain nearby. 31 deg F for a high temp at 9100' today at noon (Fisher Creek SNOTEL), and the sun came out for a couple of hours around 1pm.
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north bowl Abiathar

Light, downslope breeze. Snowpit location was just skier's right of a large-ish natural sluff avalanche that came out of the north couloir, and was at least 4 days old. Also, couldn't discern any faceted snow crystals at the 280cm layer, just a slight hardness change there.
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Wyoming Creek

SH layer of concern at 152cms was not a clean stripe all the way across the 90cm wide ECT column, and appeared to be getting compressed by the snow above.
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lower west Meridian

Also found the same buried SH layer on a nearby east aspect (CTM Q1). No collapsing while breaking trail for part of the afternoon. There were also some fresh (3 days old?) slab avalanches nearby, on a steep, rocky SW aspect of Meridian Peak, that appeared to be triggered by a mountain goat. And, observed some fresh point releases (from the last 24/48 hrs), which were entraining a fair bit of snow in sustained steep terrain.
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SE 9595'

Dug 3 snowpits in the 8,500'-9,000' realm, on SE and E aspects all with similar results: the SH was present 20-25cms from surface, but was not propagating in ECT's. (first two snowpits appeared to be dug on old ski tracks). Also, minor collapsing felt on this layer while breaking trail- collapses in the 5-10' estimated diameter scale.
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Republic Creek

Was looking for a layer of buried SH, possibly preserved beneath the wind event of Jan. 13-14. The wind event was obvious in the snowpit, with lots of pine needles in the 2F snow, and there was a very subtle stipe in the pit wall at around HS140, but I couldn't find any SH crystals in that subtle layer. Pit location was on the edge of a clearing, but possibly too close to some large white bark pine trees for SH growth. Or maybe the wind just knocked it down. No collapsing experienced while breaking trail throughout the day in this area.
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