Natural Wind Slab avalanches around Cooke City

COOKE CITY
Cooke City
Code
SS-N-R2-D2-I
Aspect
NE
Latitude
45.02020
Longitude
-109.93800
Notes

1. A natural wind slab avalanche broke beneath a cornice on Henderson Mountain, near Cooke City. It appears to have broken at the new-old interface, 2-3 ft deep and ~300 ft wide. Likely ran overnight on Monday 2/22/21 or early morning Tuesday 2/23/21. 

2. Another smaller wind slab also broke further down the path. 

3. A small slide under Sheep Mtn on a E aspect . Size 1, natural. Lots of transport today out north, with dense punchy snow on most aspects. Definitely slabbing up.

4. Photo attached. I saw this SS-N-R1D2 on an E aspect at 9,000’ on the east side of republic mountain into Republic creek. I’m guessing it involved the HN plus some wind wind loading old facets on a steep rocky face.

5. Southeast ridge of Mt Abundance broke under the wind-loads. It propagated a few hundred feet.

Number of slides
4
Number caught
0
Number buried
0
Avalanche Type
Soft slab avalanche
Trigger
Natural trigger
R size
2
D size
2
Bed Surface
I - Interface between new and old snow
Problem Type
Wind-Drifted Snow
Slab Thickness
24.0 inches
Slab Thickness units
inches
Single / Multiple / Red Flag
Multiple Avalanches
Advisory Year