Trip Planning for Northern Madison

From obs: "Party of three made our way into Beehive Basin up to near the bottom of 4th of July Couloir. Noted strong winds blowing from the south southwest (up the canyon) Saw shooting cracks up to 8 feet out skinning up a boulder pile on a east facing aspect, (picture my friend took). Snowpack still to shallow to confidently ski any of the upper couloirs. Further down in the canyon on the short grassier slopes snowpack was reasonably dense and stable with a weak crust layer under 8-10 inches of the light fluffy stuff, snow depth up to 2 feet in select spots. Friend reported hearing one small whumph breaking trail up to the ridge on a convex roll. Skied out the entire slope with 10ish other people and didn't see any other signs of instability."

Inch thick crust on SW slope in Divide Basin

Snowpit at Bridger Bowl on 11/5. Photo: B. VandenBos

From e-mail: "Photo attached from near top of hyalite peak, 11/2. Cracking in recent hard wind slab, I had to really jump hard to make this. Walked on many other hard slabs that were well bonded. Highly variable snowpack. I think you'd be most likely to get into trouble by popping out a small hard slab pocket like this and getting magic carpeted into some thinly covered terrain." Photo: B. VandenBos

From obs: "1-3 mm faceting in front of the Montage. Clear skys and mid 20 temps"

On October 17, rain turned to snow and blanketed the mountains of southwest Montana with a fresh coat of snow. Photo: Yellowstone Club Webcam

On October 17, rain turned to snow and blanketed the mountains of southwest Montana with a fresh coat of snow. Photo: Bridger Bowl Webcams

The 26th annual fundraiser for the Friends of the GNFAC is October 25 at the Emerson Cultural Center. More info and tickets at: https://events.eventgroove.com/event/Powder-Blast-2024-101627