Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center

Approx 20 hits before depth hoar began to sluff away below shovel. After digging pit, we traversed skier's right approx 50 feet and experienced a collapse and cracking of the new snow slab sitting on top of a buried surface hoar layer. No surface hoar noted in the pit we dug at this exact location. We observed ECTP 11 and ECTP 6 on the buried surface hoar layer at the location of the collapse and cracking. We descended down the ridge to the lower angle terrain skier's right of the burn area.

14" of new snow, deeper in wind loaded areas. The new snow was well bonded to the old snow surface and non-reactive.

Slab above upper crust was 15 mm (H20) in 9 cm snow. Slab in between upper 2 crust was 62 mm (H20) in 27 cm of snow.

Cross loading observed on many aspects; upslope winds observed on S aspects, particularly rock bound couloirs. Large natural avalanche noted that spanned multiple aspects.