Cooke City Area North

We rode around a big chunk of the Cooke City area from the Miller Road, up to Daisy, around the backside of Fisher Mtn, into Fisher Creek, and looping around Scotch Bonnet Mtn. Ee saw no signs of instability. No cracking or collapsing. While tracks on slopes don't indicate stability, there were a lot of tracks on small test slopes, and none produced small avalanches. 

In all our snowpits, the weak layers were generally 2-2.5 feet deep and I was pleasantly surprised that they seem to be gaining some hardness. It feels that the snowpack has benefited from the steady trickle of light snow in the Cooke area. It hasn't added much water weight, but the continuous light snowfall in the Cooke Area has been slowly insulating and burying the weak layers without stressing them.

Unfortunately, we could not find any buried surface hoar, but we know it's out there. We also know that other areas like slopes south of town up Republic Creek are likely much weaker. 

Without a major load of snow (and water), below treeline, avalanches are still possible but don't feel too imminent. It's different story going above treeline - where avalanches have been happening, where there's lots of wind loading, and where there are lots of potential trigger points. Stay below treeline.