Trip Planning for Southern Madison

as of 5:00 am
Today1″ | NA
Dec 8 5″ | NA
Dec 7 2″ | NA
9460′     at
- mph
Gusts mph
9000′     12/09 at 09:00
6℉
27″ Depth
Primary Problem: Persistent Weak Layer
Bottom Line: Unstable snow is widespread across our advisory area. Weak snow at the ground that fell in October and early November has been overloaded by this week’s new snow. Any slope that held snow before last weekend is suspect. If you ride on or beneath steep slopes today, expect to trigger avalanches. Avoid the hazard by sticking to lower angled slopes today and avoiding crossing runout zones beneath steeper slopes.

Past 5 Days

Sun Dec 3

None
Mon Dec 4

None
Thu Dec 7

Considerable
Fri Dec 8

Considerable
Today

Considerable

Relevant Avalanche Activity

Widespread cracking and collapsing
Coordinates: 45.2952, -111.4100
Caught: 0 ; Buried: 0

Cracking and collapsing reported across the advisory area in the Bridger Range, Big Sky area, near West Yellowstone and Island Park, and near Cooke City.


More Avalanche Details
Southern Madison
Taylor Fork
Remote Triggered Avalanche - Beaver Slide
Incident details include images
Taylor Fork
SS-AMu-R2-D1.5-O
Elevation: 9,000
Aspect: N
Coordinates: 45.0607, -111.2720
Caught: 0 ; Buried: 0

From text message: "The attached picture is a little slide that went off when I was doing small turns on an adjacent slope. That's Beaver Slide! There was more small slides south in the trees. Heard whumphing here and there." Photo: J. Onken


More Avalanche Details
Southern Madison
Taylor Fork
Shooting cracks and small wind slabs in the Southern Madison Range
Incident details include images
Taylor Fork
Coordinates: 45.0607, -111.2720
Caught: 0 ; Buried: 0

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. 


More Avalanche Details

Relevant Photos

Displaying 1 - 6
  • From text message: "The attached picture is a little slide that went off when I was doing small turns on an adjacent slope. That's Beaver Slide! There was more small slides south in the trees. Heard whumphing here and there." Photo: J. Onken

  • 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

  • From IG: “Pine creek today, some small wind slabs and a full depth wet slide off black mountain”

  • From IG: “Pine creek today (10/21), some small wind slabs and a full depth wet slide off black mountain”

  • From obs. "Was out alpine climbing today and observed the north face of Blackmore had slid already."

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WebCams


Raynolds Pass, Looking N

Snowpit Profiles- Southern Madison

 

Select a snowpit on the map to view the profile image

Weather Forecast Southern Madison

Extended Forecast for

20 Miles S Big Sky MT

  • Today

    Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 15. Wind chill values as low as -15. Breezy, with a south southwest wind 9 to 14 mph increasing to 18 to 23 mph in the afternoon.

    Sunny then
    Mostly Sunny
    and Breezy

    High: 15 °F

  • Tonight

    Tonight: Snow likely, mainly after 4am. The snow could be heavy at times.  Mostly cloudy, with a temperature rising to around 14 by 3am. Wind chill values as low as -15. Windy, with a south southwest wind 29 to 34 mph, with gusts as high as 41 mph.  Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.

    Windy. Mostly
    Cloudy then
    Heavy Snow

    Low: 10 °F⇑

  • Sunday

    Sunday: Snow.  High near 20. Wind chill values as low as -5. Windy, with a south southwest wind 27 to 32 mph decreasing to 21 to 26 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 36 mph.  Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

    Snow and
    Windy

    High: 20 °F

  • Sunday
    Night

    Sunday Night: Snow likely, mainly before midnight.  Mostly cloudy, with a low around 16. South wind 9 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.  Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

    Snow Likely

    Low: 16 °F

  • Monday

    Monday: A 50 percent chance of snow.  Mostly cloudy, with a high near 26. South wind 6 to 8 mph.  New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.

    Chance Snow

    High: 26 °F

  • Monday
    Night

    Monday Night: A 30 percent chance of snow before midnight.  Mostly cloudy, with a low around 14. Southwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm  after midnight.  New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

    Chance Snow
    then Mostly
    Cloudy

    Low: 14 °F

  • Tuesday

    Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 27. Calm wind becoming west northwest 5 to 9 mph in the morning.

    Mostly Sunny

    High: 27 °F

  • Tuesday
    Night

    Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 12. South wind around 9 mph.

    Mostly Clear

    Low: 12 °F

  • Wednesday

    Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 30.

    Sunny

    High: 30 °F

The Last Word

Listen to GNFAC Forecaster Dave Zinn on the Hoary Marmot Podcast for some extracurricular avalanche talk (link to episode).

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