West Central Montana Avalanche Center

Talus at base of pit so temp at ground was reading -3ºc

In pit today on NNE slope around 7500 feet snowpack was 127cm. 500 feet up and below ridgeline snow depth was 157cm. A newer storm slab from warmer snows is sitting on less consolidated snow and reactive (though stubborn) in tests. Persistant weak layer deeper in snowpack was not reactive today for the first time in 5+ weeks.

Reference snow pit 20210111LostTrailBC, as this pit was dug near that pit. However, this location had slid around 12/21/2020 natural avalanche cycle. Checking to see how snow is bonding to that slide surface since so many popular ski routes over 35 degrees slid in that event.

Dug in deeper snowpack at this location. Also check out neighboring snow pit 20210111LostTrailBC2 - pit dug in neighboring gully that had slid around 12/21/2020.

We viewed a small human triggered(snow machine) avalanche on a similar slope about 1/4 mile to the North of our location. The small slab failed on the buried surface hoar and facet layer at 195cm. A decline in slope angle did not allow the slab to run more than about 30 feet downhill. We did not get propagation in an ECT we performed just below the slide site.