Weakening Snow and Future Problems

Today, we toured south of Cooke City, up Republic Creek and Republic Mountain. We spotted widespread, weakening snow surfaces: surface hoar feathers at lower elevations, faceted snow on cold, shady slopes up high, and faceted snow beneath crusts on solar aspects. Our pit on an E aspect at 9460' did not produce unstable test results, but showed the top 1.5' of snow to have faceted and weakened during this bout of high pressure. These layers are not concerning now, but will certainly be top of mind when the next storm system arrives over the weekend. 

We spotted several loose wet avalanches that occurred yesterday in steep, rocky terrain up Sheep Creek. We also noted an old, deep persistent slab avalanche on a NW' aspect near the south end of the Republic Creek drainage. This likely broke around a week ago. 

Skies were clear, winds were calm, and temperatures were warm in the sun and chilly everywhere else.