<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)"> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"/> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"/>  <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> Well I got back from my first winter trip to <st1:place w:st="on">Yellowstone</st1:place> last night.  What a trip, two Giant eruptions and a Steamboat ‘something’.  Shame I didn’t see any of them!  Well truthfully I did see some of the steam from Steamboat on Saturday 24th from the roadway in the snowcoach but it’s not the same as seeing it up close and early in its steam phase or even better during water phase….<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> As Kitt reported, I went right down to Giant when I arrived and found the signs washed around 1330 on Sunday Feb 18th.  I called on the radio hoping the signs hadn’t been replaced after the Feb 12th eruption but they were and Giant had erupted sometime overnight the 17th-18th (while I was at Mammoth waiting to come down to OF).  That was exactly what I hoped would NOT happen, making it unlikely Giant would erupt again before I had to leave on the 24th.  Here’s the activity I saw at Giant and Grotto during the week.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Sunday 18th <o:p></o:p> Giant overnight (or maybe as Kitt was sitting at Grand or in the snow lodge…)<o:p></o:p> Grotto 1336ie, still ie at 1730<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Monday 19th<o:p></o:p> Grotto off, looks like it’s post-marathon in the morning.<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot period between 0920 and 1400 – weak, snow still on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region><o:p></o:p> Grotto Fountain 1433 d=28m – No Grotto eruption!<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period ~1457, d~7m during the Grotto Fountain solo, snow washed off <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region><o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period 1655 d=4m50s, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> almost covered but not quite<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Tuesday 20th<o:p></o:p> Grotto Fountain 0622<o:p></o:p> Grotto 0632, still ie at 12:30 when I left to go on the Firehole River Snowcoach tour.<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period 0901 d=3m10s, included Feather Satellite but no significant Mastiff overflow<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Wednesday 21st<o:p></o:p> Grotto 0623ie, off ~0930<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period 0654, d=4m10s, minor Mastiff overflow<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period 1208 d=3m35s, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> got a little wet but not much<o:p></o:p> Grotto 1410ie, still ie at 1745 when I left the area (I missed the start getting lunch)<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period 1435, d-8m – this hot period started with some nice vertical surges in Giant to the top of the cone but they stopped a couple of minutes into the hot period.  <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> 2/3 covered, Feather attempted to restart but failed.<o:p></o:p> Bathtub 1600<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Thursday 22nd<o:p></o:p> Grotto 0612ie, off by 0716.  Bijou was in a slowdown but wasn’t shut off like it should have been after a <st1:place w:st="on">Marathon</st1:place>.  Grotto did not erupt again during daylight making it look like it had marathoned but there was a lot of snow in Spa’s runoff channel.  Rather strange.  I didn’t see any activity from Grotto Fountain, S. Grotto Fountain or Startling all day either.<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period between 0745 and 1000, weak, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> still mostly snow covered - definitely not your usual strong marathon recovery hot period and very early (and during my breakfast break)<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period 1213, d=9m, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> completely covered.  There didn’t seem to be much Mastiff surging and nothing from Giant, even in the afterplay.<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period 1528 d~4m, some overflow from Mastiff but not much<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period 1712, d-5m55s, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> 1/3 wet, again not much surging<o:p></o:p> No Grotto or Giant steam clouds seen before I went in at 1830<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Friday 23rd<o:p></o:p> Giant sign washed down to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> at 0630, so Giant went sometime before 0500.<o:p></o:p> Grotto 0630ie<o:p></o:p> I spent most of the day on the hill feeling not to happy about Giant.  If the last two eruptions had each been 12 hours later I might have seen them both…….<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Saturday 24th<o:p></o:p> Grotto Fountain 0658ie<o:p></o:p> Grotto 0726 – I thought this might be another Grotto Fountain solo but Grotto eventually started.<o:p></o:p> Grotto was on for less than 28 minutes.<o:p></o:p> Giant Hot Period 0747, d=3m35s – this is the only hot period without the SW Vents and it looked like Feather Satellite erupted but it was hard to tell through the steam.<o:p></o:p> Left for Mammoth by snowcoach and flew home on Sunday.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The Grotto Fountain solo on Monday, 8 minute hot period on Tuesday with early vertical surging in Giant, post-marathon’ish behavior and 9 minute hot period on Thursday were all a bit strange.  The hot periods all developed rapidly with Feather Satellite and Rust starting very fast.  Rust was splashing much more than I have seen before, frequently about a foot (but it’s hard to judge at that distance).  I did not think there was much surging at any time in Mastiff and Giant did very little surging except for the 8 minute hot period and even then it was surging at the start, not the end of the hot period!  So I was surprised it had gone when I came out on Friday morning but given the general strength of the hot periods (i.e. no 1 minute courtesy Feathers seen)  I was not surprised that it went on a short interval.  I just hoped it would have waited until daylight!<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Go Giant……..I will be back in May.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Graham<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> </div> </body> </html>