23-24

Clear, Light N Wind, No cracking, collapsing, or recent avalanche activity. Snow depth ranged from 6-12" at 8500' to ~2-3' at 9300' and above. Through that whole valley, there is a supportable crust that ranges from 2cm-5cm and is more or less supportable depending on sun exposure. In the trees and shaded areas, this crust doesn't exist. Any shallow and shady area is unsurprisingly a pile of sugary snow. Where the snow is deeper and has been getting sun there is a more layered snowpack. 

We were in Cooke for the last 3 days skiing around Republic Creek. North of town, the snowpack starts around 8700. South of town is holding snow better with its aspect. We skied and toured every aspect around Woody Ridge and Republic. Slopes that don’t see sun are holding “powder” from weeks ago, but are very rotten and easy to punch a pole down to the ground. Slopes that see the sun have an obvious crust layer. Snow depth varies from upwards of 4 feet in gullies to 1.5 feet in the valleys.  There was a very reactive wind slab from the dusting of snow and high wind that occurred over the holidays. We observed it to be 3 inches deep at its max. 

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

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. 

We climbed to the Upper Mummy's (west facing) and found relatively little snow at 9,000'. Gullies that usually fill in from wind-loading were not showing much depth. HS was less than 6 inches on the hike up (see pic). Across the valley looking at Elephant and Palace Butte, the bowls were snow covered, but barely (pic). Lower elevation, east facing slopes were mostly mostly dirt.

The avalanche danger is non-existent on most slopes. The exception would be high elevation gullies that happened to get wind drifts, but these are not widespread.

We climbed to the Upper Mummy's (west facing) and found relatively little snow at 9,000'. Gullies that usually fill in from wind-loading were not showing much depth. HS was less than 6 inches on the hike up (see pic). Across the valley looking at Elephant and Palace Butte, the bowls were snow covered, but barely (pic). Lower elevation, east facing slopes were mostly mostly dirt.

The avalanche danger is non-existent on most slopes. The exception would be high elevation gullies that happened to get wind drifts, but these are not widespread.

We climbed to the Upper Mummy's (west facing) and found relatively little snow at 9,000'. Gullies that usually fill in from wind-loading were not showing much depth. HS was less than 6 inches on the hike up (see pic). Across the valley looking at Elephant and Palace Butte, the bowls were snow covered, but barely (pic). Lower elevation, east facing slopes were mostly dirt.

The avalanche danger is non-existent on most slopes. The exception would be high elevation gullies that happened to get wind drifts, but these are not widespread.

Wind was calm and skies were sunny, with an air temp in the teens F.