West Central Montana Avalanche Center

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.

Midway down slopes at 7700 on ENE (73 degree) aspect and 27 degree slope angle - The persistant weak layer is visible and triggered in stability tests. This layer failed in warming event two weeks prior on many steeper slopes in the area.