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Coverage on the approach was poor and icy. Turned around shortly after the lake due to time constraints and inconsistent progress because of the trail condition. Reports were there was better more consistent snow higher (1-2 miles past the lake), but the beta was from a hiker who got turned around. So make of that what you will. Talked to some guys who camped at the lake last night and they said there wasn't any precip. Clouds were rolling in heavy by the time I left, so tomorrow may be a different story. Serious wind visible on the ridge lines I'd still say loading is a factor, even with the general lack of snow.

Looks like I'll be heading back to the bridger's tomorrow. Maybe hiking up the ski hill again if I can't round up a partner for the something further north.

Bozeman people:
Anyone renting a room please contact me ASAP by PM. Thank you.
Looking to spend 4 months of winter up there.

Took another swing at Black more and got some riding in. We were in limited visibility snowy conditions the whole way up, so not much in the way of pics.


The lower east facing slope was the highlight with good creamy snow and no rock hits. The upper south facing slope was significantly less stable so we stuck to the lower angle trees on skiers left. We had some good face shots and well over knee deep in spots but also rock/tree hits from shallower portions. Eric from GNFAC was up on the same day I will default to his observations. We found issues in the same layers but they were more reactive in 38 degree wind loaded pit then his 26 degree non-wind loaded pit.

Crappy picture of the east facing deepness.

Funny! You must've been up there on Saturday. Kate, Tyler and I left early and put the track in because we had to get back to Billings that night. Ran into Eric Knoff on our way out as well and must've seen you guys too. Party of two splitters? We had a skier & two splitboarders.
Pretty good conditions, although the SE shoulder had very little dense base beneath the new stuff and thus I tagged a pretty epic number of rocks on the way down. Definitely a somewhat concerning dense, crusty layer just beneath the storm snow. Didn't play around with it too much as the avy concerns over the weekend were pretty obvious, but I'll be curious to see how it plays out.

Yep we were the two splitters on sat pulling up the end of the groups.

Anyone been up to beehive recently?

Nope, today was my first day out on my split. We tooled around below Window Rock in Hyalite for a couple hours. Still bony up there. Need to get up in the 10k zone methinks.

too lazy to link but check out the SW montana conditions thread on TGR. Some people hit SW couloir recently and it looked pretty nice.

Heading into the N Madison tomorrow. I'll post up with what I find.

So this isn't about the Bozone area but still.... went up to Lolo on Saturday with my cousin and did a quick trip through the Crystal Amphitheater area.... filling in nicely and the snowpack was great. Plenty of light and fluffy all over the place. I am still trying to scrape together the $700 to finish my split setup so I was on the ol trusty slo-shoes... hopefully soon I'll be able to rip it up on the Goat!

After spending most of my break in Jackson, I finally got out on a couple of Bozeman area tours over the weekend. Great riding conditions and generally pretty stable. Toured in the N Madison Range on Saturday and found the best snow on NE facing slopes. Cold temps kept it pretty good on all aspects though! Didn't dig around at all, just observed and used the good ol' penetrometer (ski pole). Did observe some really well-developed surface hoar on the surface though.


Cool looking lines near Beehive Peak


Got out in the Hyalite region yesterday for some more fun. Conditions also quite stable and good on all aspects we rode (N & SE). Dug pits at about 9200' on both those aspects. New/windloaded snow was about 1-1.5' deep on both aspects and broke w/ moderate force on some fine-grained facets at the old/new snow interface. Didn't propagate. No real problematic layers save a weird hard/dense layer on the SE aspect just below the new/loaded snow. Could present issues in the future.

Well... hopefully you guys have been getting out! Things were good in the northern Gallatin over the weekend despite the cold temps. The new snow was super light and until Monday the winds stayed mellow, providing for a classic combo of great stability and great surface conditions. Dug pits on N, NE, and SE aspects at between 9200-9500' and didn't find buried facets in any of them. In fact, the N facing pits gave me no results at all (ECTX)! First time I've ever seen that up there this time of year. On Monday the winds picked up and were definitely loading up a bunch of different slopes, favoring no particular aspect. Be curious to see how reactive these things are now. Some photos (sorry, no single plankin'- i was the only one brave enough to take out the camera!):



More photos on my site.

Hey all. Relatively new to the backcountry scene here and looking to gain some avy knowledge. I'm in-between splits right now (sold my self-split and waiting for my new setup to arrive) but should be back on the snow in a week or 2. I grew up in the midwest with a heavy park influence and moved to Bozeman 4ish years ago. I have shovel, beacon, probe and some BC knowledge gained from a handful of outings over the past 2 years. As far as ascending and descending, I can keep up with most anyone at this point (you won't have to worry about waiting ). Ideally I'd take an avy 1 course, but just can't afford it this year so I'm looking for someone who is knowledgeable about conditions, snowpack, safe travel etc, and willing to let me pick their brain during a day tour. I'm currently finishing up the book "staying alive in avalanche terrain" and will be attending a free 2 day avy workshop this week so I have/will have a decent theoretical grasp on conditions and such. I HAVE practiced using my beacon. If anyone wants to get out and teach me a thing or 2 after the next storm shoot me a pm. I'll gladly pick up gas and beer!