Skiers on Woodward Mountain noted sensative wind slabs and shooting cracks on Saturday. While the slabs were thin, they chose to avoid consequential avalanche terrain due to the signs of instability. Photo: E Heiman
Trip Planning for Southern Madison
Past 5 Days

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Relevant Avalanche Activity

Coordinates: 45.0607, -111.2720
Caught: 0 ; Buried: 0
Went into the Lightning/Taylor Creek area of the Southern Madison’s in search of some powder skiing with the new snow. On our ascent toward Woodward Mountain via the backside, we found fresh snow varying from 2 inches at the trailhead to foot deep lightly drifted areas in the upper elevations. In the protected low angle gully we ascended this new snow sat atop either rocks or a very stout wind crust. The latter of which made for great skiing. We descended Woodward top down and assessed the possibility of thin (3”) wind slabs being reactive on the stout wind crust as the Woodward side seemed to have received a lot more loading from the storm’s E winds. As we rolled over to slightly steeper terrain, I noticed the snow stiffening just below my skis and gave it a few hops where I intentionally popped the pictured slab. With this information, we decided to carefully traverse to more protected trees and descend via a less wind loaded and hazardous route. We ski cut from tree to tree triggering a few more of these very small slabs before finding wonderful powder skiing lower on the mountain where the wind had significantly less effect.
All of the slabs were 1 to 4 inches deep and propagated 5 to 15 feet wide. None of them possessed the mass or were on steep enough terrain to overcome and slide over the stauch wall. Overall was a great lesson in mitigating hazard and we were rewarded with some great turns.
More Avalanche Details
Relevant Photos
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From IG: “Pine creek today, some small wind slabs and a full depth wet slide off black mountain”
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From IG: “Pine creek today (10/21), some small wind slabs and a full depth wet slide off black mountain”
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From obs. "Was out alpine climbing today and observed the north face of Blackmore had slid already."
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Videos- Southern Madison
WebCams

Raynolds Pass, Looking N
Weather Stations- Southern Madison
Weather Forecast Southern Madison
Extended Forecast for20 Miles S Big Sky MT
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Overnight
Mostly Cloudy
Low: 13 °F
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Thursday
Mostly Cloudy
then Slight
Chance SnowHigh: 23 °F
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Thursday
NightSlight Chance
SnowLow: 13 °F
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Friday
Chance Snow
High: 19 °F
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Friday
NightSnow Likely
Low: 13 °F
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Saturday
Snow Likely
and BreezyHigh: 18 °F
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Saturday
NightSnow and
Breezy then
Chance SnowLow: 10 °F
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Sunday
Chance Snow
High: 21 °F
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Sunday
NightSnow Likely
and BreezyLow: 17 °F
The Last Word

We travel with a lot of electronics that could interfere with our avalanche transceiver, both as a victim and as a rescuer. Check out our article on Electronic Warfare to learn what to do.