SW Montana Snowpack Discussion

malonius_funk

malonius_funk

Active member
I thought it may be a good idea to follow TGR's lead and have regional snowpack discussions to help organize things. If you guys think this is unnecessary and we can keep all the talk down to one thread, feel free to delete this.

Here's the current advisory from GNFAC:http://www.mtavalanche.com/current/

Haven't been out to check the conditions myself as I am home for Christmas but I will try to update this as frequently as possible. Hope to hear from others in the area; I know there are quite a few of you. Peace!
 
Seems like a good plan to start, unless the Regionals would be a better forum.

In NW MT, we saw surface hoar, a light rain crust, and some near surface faceting in our Level Two pits before Christmas, that then picked up ~50cms of loading. I want to go see how it's doing, because on the outset it was terrifying on S aspects.

Did you all get the surface hoar down south?
 
Excited to get back to Bozeman on the 11th! Looks like it's been dumping up there, crazy conditions in the BC right now for sure. Really hoping the weak layers lower in the snowpack settle out, those sketch me out.
 
13276531:Literature said:
Seems like a good plan to start, unless the Regionals would be a better forum.

In NW MT, we saw surface hoar, a light rain crust, and some near surface faceting in our Level Two pits before Christmas, that then picked up ~50cms of loading. I want to go see how it's doing, because on the outset it was terrifying on S aspects.

Did you all get the surface hoar down south?
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Good stuff. And I am not sure about the surface hoar as I have been at home for the past week. Can anyone else from Boze comment on that?

I'm hoping that through creating this thread I will become more diligent about posting conditions, etc. Stay safe out there, supposed to be a big storm rolling through tomorrow.

Sidenote: Is it possible to take the "SW" out of the title of this thread?
 
We have some well-developed facets as the base of our snowpack almost everywhere, and most places have a surface hoar/facet layer with a crust on top of it toward the middle right now. This is shaping up to be a spicy season!
 
Not so much a snow pack comment but went up History Rock with the dog yesterday early and it was skiing awesome. Anyone that knows that area knows it isn't anything too crazy but good for an early morning session with the pup.
 
Anyone been out the past day or so? I'm going to try and get out Friday, but I haven't been out this calendar year. I'm thinking about heading up Blackmore Creek and kind of playing it by ear/feel and skiing either Blackmore or Elephant, depending on conditions.
 
13289665:Aenigma said:
Anyone been out the past day or so? I'm going to try and get out Friday, but I haven't been out this calendar year. I'm thinking about heading up Blackmore Creek and kind of playing it by ear/feel and skiing either Blackmore or Elephant, depending on conditions.
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I went and climbed The Hangover in Hyalite 2 days ago and kinda poked around in the snow pack on the way up. It has definitely been warm up there; I think it's been colder in town than in Hyalite. The snow on top is consolidated and heavy yet there seemed to still be an unstable layer further down which kinda worried me. Listening to the report today made it seem like some places are doing OK while other pockets are/may be unstable. If it was me, I would ski very conservatively. Sorry for the vagueness; that's all I got. Have fun, be safe. If you run some tests let us know!
 
Definitely an interesting day, and an interesting snowpack out there.

The rain/fog crust went up to about 9,300', and then all signs of precipitation disappeared. Even though it snowed a bit in town last night, there was no trace of any up Hyalite, which was super weird.

In the snow pits I dug, there was a layer shearing Q1 about 12-18" down, although it was not super reactive in the first three pits I dug. In one it failed and propagated at ECT25, but in all the others it held steady. We summited Blackmore and skied down a ways to ski a chute on the E face, and I ducked in to dig another pit at the top, since the top was a N/NE aspect. I found the same layer, except it had a well-developed hoar frost layer on top of it, and at ECT15 the entire column failed and fell onto my feet. I hopped out and we just skied the SE ridgeline down to the flats, and cruised out on the now super icy trail.

The snowpack is relatively solid most places, but the really clean-shearing layer does worry me, as do the pockets of hoar frost. I think some bigger terrain could be skied cautiously, but it would be well worth your while to dig many pits to make sure (we did four today, for one run).
 
Heading up to Flander's to climb Killer Pillar and do some skiing tomorrow. Looking like it's going to be a beautiful day. I will report back with snowpack conditions for that area. If you head out tomorrow, have fun and be safe!
 
anyone skied in Hyalite the last few days? hoping to head up to history rock for a quick lap tomorrow after class...
 
13306145:*cgski* said:
anyone skied in Hyalite the last few days? hoping to head up to history rock for a quick lap tomorrow after class...
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13306277:Aenigma said:
I haven't, but I'm hoping to get up there saturday to give a go at skinny maid and pinner.
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Skied Mt. Blackmore on Wednesday morning before class. This was one of those mornings that words or photos can't do justice; days like these confirm that the most honest and fulfilling experiences I have are those spent in the mountains with the ones I love.

We expected to be skiing crust the whole way down. Instead, we were greeted with 6" of absolutely blower Montana pow (deeper in some places) and bluebird skies. We reached the summit around 8:45am just as the sun burned off the clouds and warmed us up.

Pit-wise, on the Eastern aspect we dug into we got an ECTN although there was a definite crust layer near the top of the snowpack under the new snow. The facets near the bottom seemed to be healing extremely well or were non-existent. The snow depth was about 70cm. Overall, we felt good about the stability and skied without having to hold onto any "out of the ordinary" concern.

'yer boi and the dancing lifty chuggin' up the ridge to the summit

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'yer boi and the dancing lifty getting too stoked on the beautiful weather and perfect snow conditions

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dancing lifty getting tubular

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and pitted

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our exit from ZEE EAST FACE!!!!!!!!!

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woohoo! be safe out there. dig your own pits; come to your own conclusions. have fun!
 
We took a trip up to Frazier Basin today, after deciding against a long tour in Hyalite. The morning started with a drive/snowmobile in rain at 7am, but as we got higher, things started to look more like winter. The ~1mi skin from the Fairy Lake road brought a change in the weather from light rain to 40-60mph winds and snow, although it wasn't coming down hard, so there wasn't much moving. We took a run down the S wall from the high point on the left as you approach the basin, and found surprisingly good snow--especially toward the bottom. Most aspects were 100% wind fucked, but the bit of new snow on top made riding conditions pretty great.

After the first run, we headed up the opposite wall into even worse conditions, as well as a cloud ceiling that was a few hundred feet below the ridgeline. We did manage to find the entrance to the Red Couloir, and skied it in totally smooth conditions with 2-3" of new snow on top. Unfortunately, I had to get back for work, so that was all the skiing we did.

At the moment, things are really solid up there, and I would probably drop into anything. However, surface conditions are a mixed bag of wind effect, ice, new snow, some small wind slabs, and lots of surface facets, so new snow down the road (whenever we get it) will be interesting.
 
Kind of late here, but last Sunday I was up in the Maid of the Mist area up Hyalite, and found an interesting array of conditions. In the alpine, everything was 100% wind-affected, and conditions ranged from bulletproof ice, to perfect windbuff, to deep, slabby mank, to just sticky bullshit. The North-facing stuff held up much better than I thought it would through our record-high temps, but still expect to hit lots of variable and mostly spring-like snow.

The big surprise came when we got back below tree line. Predictably, everything that had seen an iota of sun was absolutely horrible, but the terrain that had the magic combination of complete shade and no wind was actually really excellent. We felt good enough about the conditions that we just skied the little creek bed down to the main fork of Hyalite, complete with sweet waterfall drops and turns around open falling water. Then we cruised down the slushy trail in sunshine, and came across a herd of women in heavy perfume and bar slut costumes to wrap up an excellent day in the backcountry.

I'm heading up into the Crazies tomorrow morning, and expect about the same, but with more wind and way fewer people.
 
13332050:Aenigma said:
Kind of late here, but last Sunday I was up in the Maid of the Mist area up Hyalite, and found an interesting array of conditions. In the alpine, everything was 100% wind-affected, and conditions ranged from bulletproof ice, to perfect windbuff, to deep, slabby mank, to just sticky bullshit. The North-facing stuff held up much better than I thought it would through our record-high temps, but still expect to hit lots of variable and mostly spring-like snow.

The big surprise came when we got back below tree line. Predictably, everything that had seen an iota of sun was absolutely horrible, but the terrain that had the magic combination of complete shade and no wind was actually really excellent. We felt good enough about the conditions that we just skied the little creek bed down to the main fork of Hyalite, complete with sweet waterfall drops and turns around open falling water. Then we cruised down the slushy trail in sunshine, and came across a herd of women in heavy perfume and bar slut costumes to wrap up an excellent day in the backcountry.

I'm heading up into the Crazies tomorrow morning, and expect about the same, but with more wind and way fewer people.
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haha that sounds awesome. great report. let us know how the crazies are doing!
 
Looks like Cooke City got dumped on the other day, a foot or so.

Speaking of Cooke City stoke...

Patience is a Virtue // Episode 001 // Backyard Roots from Kt Miller on Vimeo.
 
So the Crazies have 4-5' of snow at about treeline, and there is consistent snow starting 1.5mi from the Half Moon Campground. I dug a pit just below Blue Lake and found 3 layers of graupel in the first 18" that gave me Q1 shears with full propagation, so I ended up heading to the Twin Lakes and skiing the south couloir of Conical Peak at sunset. N/E facing stuff above treeline hasn't thawed out, but anything that has gotten sun is either nice spring snow or bulletproof ice, depending on when you hit it. The alpine has been hit hard by wind, and looks about the way it should in October.

We went to Kirkwood on Hebgen Lake today and toured S up whatever that rideline is called, and had mostly breakable crust/ice all the way to the top. However, our plan was to drop down the backside and ski to Quake Lake, and a pit just below the top on a N aspect gave an ECTX, so we took a massive run of almost all untouched powder (turning to breakable crust the last few hundred feet) to the head end of Quake Lake.

There's definitely good skiing to be had if you get up high and on the right aspect, but the conditions are still spotty and are going to get really weird if it ever turns to winter again.
 
I've been around West Yellowstone the past six days, and it's pretty shitty down there. Some E/NE sheltered areas from 8-9000' are good, but 95% of the area is scoured, drifted, sun affected, and faceted all the way through the 12-20" of snowpack we have. I'm happy I got in a lot of big lines last year, because this one isn't shaping up so great.
 
13565585:chris.goodhue said:
this cold weather and no snow is scary
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hopefully this encourages discussion

I am a total BC maroon, to the point that I'm not going ski something like saddle or the football field unless I'm with someone who absolutely has a clue. Everything I've heard recently is that because of the cold temps, clear skies, and no new snow, what is on the ground is faceted to hell.

After the bit of new snow we got this week, I saw some pictures of people skinning and skiing on facebook. Are they total morons, or are there certain aspects in the northern Bridgers that are in better condition than the rest? and why?
 
13572108:ghosthop said:
hopefully this encourages discussion

I am a total BC maroon, to the point that I'm not going ski something like saddle or the football field unless I'm with someone who absolutely has a clue. Everything I've heard recently is that because of the cold temps, clear skies, and no new snow, what is on the ground is faceted to hell.

After the bit of new snow we got this week, I saw some pictures of people skinning and skiing on facebook. Are they total morons, or are there certain aspects in the northern Bridgers that are in better condition than the rest? and why?
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I mean everyone has a different risk tolerance. Something I wouldn't feel comfortable skiing might be game on for someone else or vice versa. I believe the new snow we received didn't load the faceted snow below enough to increase the danger substantially, but with new snow and wind, fresh windslabs will be forming. Definitely encourage you to learn about decision making in the BC. Although your partner might be more knowledgable, a group decision and good communication is key in my opinion.

Check this article out, really shows how group dynamics in the backcountry can sway decision making. Also a really interesting, extremely well put together article for anyone interested in learning about backcountry skiing.
http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek
 
anybody in here know some good quick lap spots in the bitterroot/missoula area would love to gain more knowledge about the skiing around here
 
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