Bridger

Out for an evening walk in the snow from 6:30-8:30 PM. Temperatures were warm and the new snow was much denser than in recent storms. Snowing hard throughout the duration of the tour. My visibility was limited by darkness and snowfall intensity. However, I found a few recent, small debris piles on the S Bowl Road as well as the crowns of a few small skier-triggered slabs on steep road cuts above the road (photo below). I was able to trigger some cracking and collapsing underneath the recent snowfall by provoking small test slopes with some light stomping (photo below). I dug on an E (just barely south of east) aspect at 8,100' where HS was around 2 feet (photo below). There had been small patches of old, blown-in snow here but mostly this slope was dry when snowfall started in earnest in late November. The density inversion was apparent while digging, with a cohesive slab of snow resting on softer, weaker snow underneath. Snowpack tests produced ECTP 2, 3, and 5 at the base of the recent snow, down 8-10 inches. It looked and felt like there were some small near surface facets here, but confident grain ID was pretty tough with the warm temperatures and heavy snowfall. I tried to find surface hoar at this interface but was unsuccessful. It felt like there was a little more than just today's precip in this slab, I suspect the snow from 12/3 was in there as well. This would make sense, with the "best" near surface facet formation conditions occurring during the brief cold, clear window earlier in the week. Long story short: conditions were deteriorating and stability was decreasing during my time in the field. I expect a skier/rider would have been able to easily trigger slides failing at the base of the recent snow in many places. I have been wondering if we would see issues within the snow from the past two weeks, and today's observations answered that question.

Bridger

Quick report

Weather

Avalanche