22-23

We rode to the Taylor Fork weather station (near Pika Point on the rim of Sunlight Basin) and noticed a few slides along the way. At the weather station we could see that the north end of the basin natural avalanched: the slopes from where the cornices end in Sunlight Basin past Pika Point. It broke up to 2.5 feet deep on an old layer of facets and surface hoar. The slide was R2 D2, 3-400 feet vertical and at least 750 feet wide. It was a large Hard Slab. We spent time at the crown digging, making a movie and getting cold. No surprises, just great to see a real avalanche. We also saw smaller slides looking west from the station, close by. Afterward, we rode to the Sage/Carrot divide in deep snow; hero riding. Skyline Ridge was obscured in clouds.

On the drive back to Bozeman we could see many slides on road cuts and on slopes across the river; low elevation avalanches that we don’t get to see often.

The avalanche recorded in this form is the one in Sunlight Basin that we made the movie about.

We rode through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Yellowmule. Measured 13” of new snow with 0.6” SWE in 1st Yellowmule at 10 am. This brought the two day snow total to approximately 20”. Snowed all day with varying intensity and there were strong west winds along the ridge. 

Visibility wasn’t great, but we saw most of the avalanche terrain in the Yellowmules. .....  saw a very small snowmobile triggered avalanche on a roadcut on the way out (6-12 inches deep, ~20 ft wide) that broke on facets in the thin snowpack.