Ride around north of Cooke

We saw most terrain in the motorized area north of Cooke City. We went passed Round Lake to Goose Lake wilderness boundary, around the north of Sheep Mtn. and Scotch Bonnet to Lulu Pass, out to Mt. Abundance, back south over Daisy Pass, and around town hill/Miller Rd., then up and down Sheep Creek to the top.

Skies were clear and wind was calm to non-existent with cold temperatures (singles to teens F).

We saw a handful (4-6?) of old wind slab avalanches of various ages. The most recent and largest appearing, but still not very fresh, was on the north side of Scotch Bonnet (attached photo). Most were D1-D1.5, the slide pictured was D2. 

We dug on the southeast shoulder of Mt. Abundance (profile attached). Snow depth was 3.5-4 feet and we had ECTNs. There were some soft-ish facets near the bottom of the snowpack. We also dug a pit in Sheep Creek and had an ECTX, snow depth of 4-5 feet. We did a lot of hand pits to look for recently buried facets. Small sugary facets were generally easy to find, buried 3-6" deep below soft snow. If and where snow is drifted into thicker slabs, these facets might make those slabs more reactive.

A lack of recent avalanches combined with minimal recent loading from new snow and wind point to avalanches being unlikely. The recent large persistent slab in Hayden Creek shows that although slides are unlikely they could be big. We would rule-out big slopes that are heavily wind-loaded, and otherwise feel ok in steep terrain while sticking to safe travel protocols (carry a transceiver, probe AND shovel, and only expose one person at a time to avalanche terrain).