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This snowmobile triggered slide occured outside of Cooke City. The slide failded on buried surface hoar 18" deep. The slope was only 32 degrees at the crown, which is a good example of how unstable buried surface hoar can be. Photo M. Taylor

This snowmobile triggered slide occured outside of Cooke City. The slide failded on buried surface hoar 18" deep. The slope was only 32 degrees at the crown, which is a good example of how unstable buried surface hoar can be. Photo M. Taylor

A Forest Service snow ranger outside of Cooke City found bureid surface hoar on a NE facing slope.  This snowpit was dug in the crown of a snowmobile triggered avalanche. The surface hoar layer is the gray stripe 18" below the surface. This layer has been responsible for multiple human triggered avalanches around Cooke City over the past five days. Photo W. Dudley 

This human triggered slide took place up Cabin Creek in the southern Madison Range. The slide occurred on a NE facing slope and failed on a layer of buried surface hoar. Photo J. Norlander 

This avalanche was either remotely triggered from flat terrain or triggered by a natural cornice fall. It is on a north aspect around 9600'. It may have been triggered on surface hoar buried 1.5-2 feet deep and then stepped down to depth hoar near the ground. The crown crosses the entire ridgeline in the photo and looks to be ~6' deep in the center. Photo: J. Schutz