Deep slabbies
Just finished a weeklong ski from west Yellowstone to bear canyon, and thought I’d chime in that I didn’t observe anything that hasn’t been reported on already. I saw lots of deep slabs breaking near the ground, primarily on the north half of the compass. But sometimes not! There did not seem to be much activity in the newer snow, which was encouraging. In 110 miles of skiing I got a grand total of two collapses, which is close to an inverse ratio of what I experienced Nordic skiing near west Yellowstone earlier this year. It was interesting to see that despite the lack of snow, some avalanches were running almost full track. It seems like after a week of being on the snow I would see some sort of pattern, but I feel like I ended the trip with the same amount of confidence I entered it with, and didn’t feel comfortable exposing myself to hardly anything.
I attached a couple photos of a slide I saw toward the head end of Swam Creek. The crown was 2-5’ deep and ~2000’ wide, and it stopped within 50’ of old growth timber.