24-25

Today, we rode up to The Throne for the first time this season. We parked at the motorized boundary and toured up the east face. The road riding was good but there were certainly more dirt patches on the way out, than in, with the warm temps.

We dug two pits on the east face as we ascended. At 7950' we had HS: 78, ECTN13 + 23. At 8140', we got HS: 97, ECTN 30. We toured up the ridge and moved over onto a north aspect. There we got HS: 94, ECTN 30. We observed no cracking or collapsing. Weak layers still exist at the bottom of our snowpack, but we were happy to find that these weak layers in the Bridgers seem to be not quite as weak as in our other zones.

We had good visibility and were able to get eyes on two avalanches that occurred naturally during the major wind event yesterday in the bowl south of Naya Nuki. The largest of which was a R2-D1.5 that broke in the new snow. We also got eyes on a natural avalanche (R2-D2.5) that occurred yesterday on Saddle Peak.  

Toured up Flanders Peak this morning—a beautiful day with clear skies and no/light winds.

During our ascent, we observed widespread wind effects above 8800'. The west-facing ridge of the drainage was scoured of snow, while wind loading was observed on E/SE aspects between 8800' and the summit. 1-5" thick wind slabs were widespread, and were especially of note at lower elevations in the east-facing trees; increasing depth and stiffness as we ascended and on Flanders' E shoulder. Got a few small whumpfs along the E shoulder while ascending, but no other signs of instability on the day. Several small test slopes we traversed along the ridge did not show signs of instability when we tested them.

The power of the winds was emphasized by the scoured west side of the East Ridge of the Main Fork.

We skied the slope in the trees south of the summit and dug a pit on a SE aspect @ 9530'. Skiing quality was low. Snowpit depth was 72cm. Test results were CT11 SP, ECTN8, PST 44/100 (End).

Quite a few natural avalanches observed north of Cooke City today.   Photos attached of:

1:  NE facing, 10,000, Miller Ridge

2:  E facing, 9900', Bull of the Woods Pass

3:  NE facing, 9700', Miller Ridge

4:  E facing, 10,200' Scotch Bonnet Mtn.

5:  E facing, 10,000 Mt. Henderson

6-8: NE- N facing, 10,000' Mt. Henderson

9:  NE facing, 10,000' Sheep Creek.

There was also a large avalanche event on the E aspect of Fisher Mtn, which I didn't photograph.  But there were some other skiers nearby who likely had a good view of it.  

Also, we had 4 large collapses today.  One on a southerly aspect, and the other 3 on NE aspects.  All around 9800'.

Observed from Flanders this morning. Presumed recent natural slide around ~9950 ft. on a E/NE aspect. Hard to tell from a distance, but cornice interference and/or wind loading are possible culprits. Poor image quality, but there may be more debris piles along the ridgeline to the south.

There was a natural avalanche on Saddle Peak on Wednesday, December 18. Strong winds ripped through new snow and loaded many slopes. The avalanche broke an estimated 250 feet wide, 1-3 feet deep, and ran 1500 vertical feet. Photo: T Barber