Natural Loose Snow Avalanches on Mt. Blackmore

Natural Loose Snow Avalanches on Mt. Blackmore

Date
Activity
Skiing

Toured up to the east face of Mt. Blackmore today. We observed two small natural loose dry avalanches occurring right around noon on the new/old snow interface at about 9700' on the E aspect. The largest one ran about 200 feet down into the bowl. 

We observed a hollow snowpack on our ascent and dug a pit at 9600' just below the northeast ridge. We found several weak layers that were fracturing beneath two well-defined crusts. We got a CT2 @ 135cm, CT11 @ 130cm, CT13 @ 118cm, and CT15 @ 115cm; in our extended column test we got ECTP15 Q2 @ 130cm.

Region
Northern Gallatin
Location (from list)
Mt Blackmore
Observer Name
E. Donahue