Cooke City, MT - January 25th ride report
It was a day for the trees at elevation. The wind was whipping around the light accumulation fiercely making visibility very low on 'top'. We managed to tuck in some meadows and play off the smaller lake edges avoiding the wind for mos of the day.
The snow up top is blowing and drifting in pockets making for some fluffy powder. Our tracks from Tuesday had vanished before our arrival this morning, making for a pleasant ride in new snow.
Avalanche.Org Report....
In the last 24 hours mountain temperatures have risen to 20F with strong westerly winds blowing 25-30 mph and gusts over 50 mph. Scattered snow showers dusted the Bridger Range and dropped 1-2 inches everywhere else. Continued showers today and tonight will drop 2-4 inches favoring the southern areas. Winds will remain strong and temperatures will hover near 20F. Tomorrow looks to be the snowiest day of the week.
The southern mountains, including Cooke City and the Lionhead area, have serious stability concerns (video). Mark and Karl were in Lionhead yesterday. Avalanches from the weekend were numerous; however, what gave them pause was a large, fresh, natural avalanche that broke with only two inches of new snow (photo). They dutifully dug snowpits, but found inconsistent results in their stability tests. No matter, recent avalanches provided the bulls-eye information they were looking for. The snowpack is weak and unsupportable. Carving a turn would easily sink the track down into the facets. Foot penetration was to the ground. A skier in the Bacon Rind area commented it was easy to investigate the snowpack when it’s at chest level. Snow during the past week has created slabs and increased stress. A few collapses and poor stability test results were all he needed to stick to sub 30-degree slopes.
The Cooke City area has gotten snow nine out of the last ten days. Natural avalanches and many human triggered slides, some triggered from afar, partially buried snowmobilers on Saturday and again on Monday (photo). Remote triggering is scary stuff since we can release avalanches from flat terrain, hundreds of feet below the starting zone. Seeing natural avalanches in Lionhead after a paltry two inch snowstorm, plus remote triggering in Cooke City is conclusive evidence that the avalanche danger is rated CONSIDERABLE on all slopes today.
It was a day for the trees at elevation. The wind was whipping around the light accumulation fiercely making visibility very low on 'top'. We managed to tuck in some meadows and play off the smaller lake edges avoiding the wind for mos of the day.
The snow up top is blowing and drifting in pockets making for some fluffy powder. Our tracks from Tuesday had vanished before our arrival this morning, making for a pleasant ride in new snow.
Avalanche.Org Report....
In the last 24 hours mountain temperatures have risen to 20F with strong westerly winds blowing 25-30 mph and gusts over 50 mph. Scattered snow showers dusted the Bridger Range and dropped 1-2 inches everywhere else. Continued showers today and tonight will drop 2-4 inches favoring the southern areas. Winds will remain strong and temperatures will hover near 20F. Tomorrow looks to be the snowiest day of the week.
The southern mountains, including Cooke City and the Lionhead area, have serious stability concerns (video). Mark and Karl were in Lionhead yesterday. Avalanches from the weekend were numerous; however, what gave them pause was a large, fresh, natural avalanche that broke with only two inches of new snow (photo). They dutifully dug snowpits, but found inconsistent results in their stability tests. No matter, recent avalanches provided the bulls-eye information they were looking for. The snowpack is weak and unsupportable. Carving a turn would easily sink the track down into the facets. Foot penetration was to the ground. A skier in the Bacon Rind area commented it was easy to investigate the snowpack when it’s at chest level. Snow during the past week has created slabs and increased stress. A few collapses and poor stability test results were all he needed to stick to sub 30-degree slopes.
The Cooke City area has gotten snow nine out of the last ten days. Natural avalanches and many human triggered slides, some triggered from afar, partially buried snowmobilers on Saturday and again on Monday (photo). Remote triggering is scary stuff since we can release avalanches from flat terrain, hundreds of feet below the starting zone. Seeing natural avalanches in Lionhead after a paltry two inch snowstorm, plus remote triggering in Cooke City is conclusive evidence that the avalanche danger is rated CONSIDERABLE on all slopes today.
