Bearclaw Bob's 2

[bearclawbob]

Sunny again

Sunny again in Cooke. The snowman is calling for another day of sunshine, where the temp's will be in the upper 40's. By Monday we could see a chance of snow / rain and snow showers. Hey guys that's something. The season is winding down and I'll report for at least another week. I hope everyone had a great winter.
Yes you are able to ride in from the parking lot, its all snow covered.

AVALANCHE CONDITIONS: Cooke City

Dry snow on N facing slopes should be stable as long as you avoid fresh wind slabs. Frozen snow will be stable. Totally wet snow will be unstable. The key to riding on south aspects is being on these slopes just as they start to warm and soften. Timing is crucial. With a light freeze overnight the transition from frozen to wet could happen quickly.

Today the avalanche danger will be CONSIDERABLE on slopes with any southerly exposure. North facing slopes will have a MODERATE danger.

 

[bearclawbob]

Break out the sun glasses

Good morning for sunnyville. Break out those sun glasses again to day. I forgot to mention yesterday was the first day of Spring.
The snowman is saying we have a 20% chance this afternoon and 30% tonight. By Monday it rises to 60% for the day with a 70% at night. We could see some snow by Tuesday morning.
Snow conditions aren't the best, but by 10 am, its starts to soften and riding isn't that bad. You can climb everything, but the ride back down is fast.

AVALANCHE CONDITIONS: Cooke City

The last two days helped the snowpack transition to spring by warming during the day and refreezing at night. Refreezing at night limits wet snow avalanche activity. What will happen today is hard to predict. Without freezing last night (except near Cooke City) and with relatively warm skies, the snowpack shouldn’t need much heat this morning to soften quickly. The worst time for wet avalanches is the first major warm up of the snowpack which happened last weekend. There should be some wet, loose avalanches today, but they shouldn’t be too big and mainly involve the few inches of snow that fell mid-week. Cornices, some large ones, may fall and are worth watching for as Eric found on Thursday in Hyalite Canyon.


Today, watch for wet avalanches mostly on southerly aspects. On higher elevation northerly aspects with dry snow, watch for wind slabs that may be sitting on facets. While this problem may only exists in the northern Bridger Range, there’s a decent chance it could be in other areas. With a few avalanche problems today in specific terrain, the avalanche danger is rated MODERATE.

If your in Cooke, stop in and see the spring specials I have going on.

 

[bearclawbob]

SNOW,SNOW,SNOW

Good morning from a lazy town. Guys, you should be up here riding. We've picked up about 8 inches on the mountain and its still snowing lightly. The snowman is calling for snow for the next few days. LETS GO RIDE

AVALANCHE CONDITIONS: Cooke City

The snow is dense and although the winds have been blowing at the ridgelines, wind-loading has not been widespread. Ski Patrols reported soft slabs being triggered on steep terrain, but on many slopes the storm snow is bonding to the old snow surface: a melt-freeze ice crust on all the but most northerly aspects.

Soft slabs of storm snow and pillows of windblown snow are the main problems today. There is nothing deeper in the snowpack I’m worried about. Loose snow or small soft slab avalanches could be triggered on steep slopes, but generally the new snow fell onto a stable snowpack. Wind-loaded slopes may be touchy since immediately after a storm is when they are easiest to trigger.

The interface between the storm snow and old snow surface is where I recommend concentrating your stability assessment. Since you have to dig no deeper than a foot and a half it should only take a couple minutes to do an Extended Column Test. If it propagates across the entire column go somewhere else to ski or ride. This test is so easy it’s hard to justify blowing it off before saying, “I’m dropping in bro!”

For today the avalanche danger on wind-loaded slopes is CONSIDERABLE. Slopes without a wind-load have a MODERATE danger.

 

[bearclawbob]

Forgot the pictures

 

[bearclawbob]

More snow

Just came back in from the best ride for a long time. Most of the area has over a foot of fresh snow.

 

[roni87]

Be there Sunday.

 

[TRS]

And I flew to MSP today, go figure.