Cooke City, New Snow and Instability

We rode near Cooke City where more than 20" of snow has fallen since yesterday morning, and more snow is expected tonight. This new snow creates dangerous avalanche conditions and we expect natural and human-triggered avalanches over the next 24-72 hours. While touring on skis we experienced a couple large collapses. 

At our snowpit, HS was 55-60” (140-150cm), New snow was 21”=1.2”SWE, and we had ECTP19 and 23 above a melt-freeze crust that formed last week, buried 26-28” deep (6-8” below the newest snow). The snowpack below the crust was small rounded facets (0.5-1mm) and average 4F to 1F hard. Snowfall was 1-2cm/hr. Wind was gusting moderate to strong and seemed like it was hitting harder above us, at ridgelines and starting zones.