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
Trip Planning for Southern Madison
Past 5 Days

None

None

Considerable

Considerable

Considerable
Relevant Avalanche Activity
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

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

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
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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
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From IG: “Pine creek today, some small wind slabs and a full depth wet slide off black mountain”
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From IG: “Pine creek today (10/21), some small wind slabs and a full depth wet slide off black mountain”
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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
Weather Stations- Southern Madison
Weather Forecast Southern Madison
Extended Forecast for20 Miles S Big Sky MT
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Today
Sunny then
Mostly Sunny
and BreezyHigh: 15 °F
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Tonight
Windy. Mostly
Cloudy then
Heavy SnowLow: 10 °F⇑
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Sunday
Snow and
WindyHigh: 20 °F
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Sunday
NightSnow Likely
Low: 16 °F
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Monday
Chance Snow
High: 26 °F
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Monday
NightChance Snow
then Mostly
CloudyLow: 14 °F
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Tuesday
Mostly Sunny
High: 27 °F
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Tuesday
NightMostly Clear
Low: 12 °F
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Wednesday
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).