24-25

Winds were relentless! Enough to quickly fill bootpack of partners no more than 50 ft in front of me, clear signs of loading.
Snow ranged from a dusting over rocks to some consistent 30-55 cm ribbons of deeper drifted veins of snow. Deepest pocket found was around 65/70cm.

Main recipe found was a growing stout wind slab on top of an older wind slab above some earlier season snow that was barely starting to facet at the base. No propagation on ECT but could change as the weight builds, very obvious slab development.

Ride slow and safe as rocks and thin snow are the greatest hazards present, plus the brutal winds. 
 

You CAN drive to the fairy lake parking, but 4x4 and great tires are mandatory. Remember to park with sufficient space for vehicles to pass up and/or down the road. 

Encountered a 6-8" old, unreactive windslab in Comet Alley yesterday. NE Aspect, ~8300'. Couldn't find a weak layer beneath it. Overall, the snowpack felt fairly homogenous on this aspect in this area.

We skinned around hyalite basin today following the snowfall from last night. In the Basin, we found new snow varying from 8-12 inches. As visibility pushed us away from Hyalite peak, we skinned east towards overlook and dug a pit on a W/SW slope at 9100 feet. We found roughly 80cm snow with a small crust layer at 50cm as well as facets forming on the ground. While we had no propagation in our ECT, the facets forming will be something to watch over the next week with cold temps. No natural avy activity observed with the minimal visibility in the area other than some new snow sluffs on steeper terrain below ridge lines. 

Hidden Gully

Small storm slabs in Hidden Gully 

Inch thick crust on SW slope in Divide Basin

My partner and I climbed Twin Falls in Hyalite (it's fat). Snowfall ended mid-morning and I estimated 4-5" of new at the base of the climb (~7,500'). The wind was not blowing and there was 12-18" on the ground. The new snow bonded well to the old snow and I did not see any facets or depth hoar forming in the old snow.

There were lots of skiers heading up the Grotto Falls trail and Mt. Blackmore, so hopefully you'll get more info from them.

We found 3-4 inches of new snow while touring up Bridger and accessing the ridge via patrol chute. The new snow was on a hard crust to the ground that had not bonded yet and we observed some cracking in isolated wind affected regions. The East wind on the ridge last night formed cornices in unusual spots up high, and there was minimal cornice growth on the Eastern (normal) edge of the ridge. We skied hidden gully that had small storm slabs that propagated at our ski tips and only ~3inches in depth. The snow within Hidden was not wind affected and actually made for some great skiing further down in the couloir! 

Toured through divide basin to divide peak this morning. Snow in the basin around 130cm based on ski pole penetration however the peak itself only had about 35cm where we dug a pit on a SW slope. The new snow was sitting on a sun crust about an inch thick that was very hard to break and took a solid punch with my fist to break. Underneath the crust was all sugary facets sitting on rock. Semi-Poor skiing

Myself and three others toured up to 8260 ft on the Ramp this morning. Down low on Alpine wind gusts from the W were strong but as we ascended winds diminished and I didn't notice wind effect or slab formation on the snow on the Ramp up to where we turned around. Temps were in the 20s and visibility was minimal from the Ramp with a Bridger Bowl cloud hanging over us. The snow depth on the Ramp was about 50 cm deep from the top of Bradley's to 8260 ft. Snow depths varied at the top of Bradley's ranging from more scoured areas (30 cm) to previously wind drifted areas up to 85 cm. The new snow surface from the naked eye looked to be a mix of wind broken particles and rimed stellars. Early season hazards still abound but the skiing was surprisingly very pleasant!