22-23

Strong temperature inversion in the AM, -4F in the meadow and about 20F at the ridgeline. Sunny by late morning with light winds. The southern aspects were getting baked pretty good in the sun. We were getting roller balls and snow globbing on our skis on the SE aspect to the south of the standard skin track. 

About 60 cm of snow at the top. Soft (F hardness snow) basically to ground. Almost no wind loading. Definitely can see some of the snow at the very bottom starting to facet a bit. We saw A LOT of surface hoar mid slope and down in the meadow, but very little toward the top. The northerly aspects had no obvious signs of instability yet. I'd expect the surface hoar and/or an extended period of dry weather could set up some interesting weak layers over the coming days/weeks depending on how the weather plays out.

We toured up to the Ramp through Bridger Bowl this morning. This week's winds hammered the snow at mid-elevations (from the bottom of the Alpine/ Powder Park Lifts to the top of Bradley's Meadow). Some areas were scoured to near the ground, with pencil-hard wind drifts in others. The winds hadn't affected the snow from the bottom of the ramp to the ridge as much. We dug a pit on the Ramp halfway up. There was 90cm of snow on the ground in the pit. The bottom 38cm is faceting into sugary grains, but they aren't remarkable yet. ECTN23 at the top of the facet layer at 38cm from the bottom. My primary concerns were thin snow cover and slopes with wind drifts from the past few days. Calm up there today. 

There are many barely covered rocks on the Ramp. There was a lot of skier and boarder traffic all over the mountain. Cars were parked in the F lot when we left. 

From obs: "Photos of a small wind slab avalanche (R1 D1)  from yesterday at approximately 7800 feet on the northern end of bradleys meadow. The slide was initiated by the second skier and although the rest of the slope was <30 degrees the starting zone was a NE facing steep cross loaded wind pillow just below the ridge. 

As my friend was skiing down he saw a crack propagate up and to his left and was able to stop on the side of the path as the snow ran past him. The  crown was approximately 30-40 feet and ran about 100 feet." Photo: G. Roe

From obs: "Photos of a small wind slab avalanche (R1 D1)  from yesterday at approximately 7800 feet on the northern end of bradleys meadow. The slide was initiated by the second skier and although the rest of the slope was <30 degrees the starting zone was a NE facing steep cross loaded wind pillow just below the ridge. 

As my friend was skiing down he saw a crack propagate up and to his left and was able to stop on the side of the path as the snow ran past him. The  crown was approximately 30-40 feet and ran about 100 feet." Photo: G. Roe

I attached a few photos of a small wind slab avalanche (R1 D1)  from yesterday at approximately 7800 feet on the northern end of bradleys meadow. 

The slide was initiated by the second skier and although the rest of the slope was <30 degrees the starting zone was a NE facing steep cross loaded wind pillow just below the ridge. 

As my friend was skiing down he saw a crack propagate up and to his left and was able to stop on the side of the path as the snow ran past him. The  crown was approximately 30-40 feet and ran about 100 feet. 

Here are the coordinates of  a way point I dropped just above the top of the slide : 

45° 50.0218′ N, 110° 55.7420′ W

 we circled back and took a photo of the top as well...  let me know if you need anything else! thanks! 

Me and my buddy went on a tour today up Sheep Creek to check out the new snowfall and conditions in the area. We dug a pit on a S\SE aspect at 9500 feet and found about 100cm snowpack. Last weeks snowfall fell right side up and was not able to find layers until the bottom 6 inches of the snowpack. About 6 inches from dirt, there is a minor crust layer with small facets under the crust. We did not find the new snow to be reactive to this layer during our column test...