Swan Range

Enjoy today's sunshine and generally stable conditions before moisture returns to our area Sunday afternoon. Continue practicing safe travel techniques of just one rider on a slope at a time. Keep an eye out for isolated drifts of snow and choose terrain free of rocks and convexities. 

Hopefully, today will be our last full day of sunshine and dry conditions before Pacific moisture enters the area late Sunday into Monday. We have enjoyed generally LOW avalanche danger for the past two weeks, except for a brief period during and following our last snowfall on Thursday, January 20. Riders have enjoyed stepping out into larger terrain without incident. However, not all slopes harbor green light conditions, as an avalanche professional found on Heaven's Peak Thursday. While traveling in an area he had not visited this season, he wisely chose to dig a snowpit before committing to a large face. The snowpack structure looked terrible, and snowpack tests revealed poor stability. These red flags made for an easy decision of choosing a safe descent route different than that morning's objective. 

Avalanche activity has waned since our last snowfall nine days ago but has not entirely disappeared. Reports of fresh wind slab avalanches large enough to bury or injure a rider in central Glacier Park and the Flathead Range trickled in over the past couple of days. I enjoyed a day off in the Flathead Range yesterday, where I noted a recent wind slab and witnessed a dry loose avalanche from the north-facing steep rocky terrain. The dry loose trigger was either a falling ice chunk or wind deposited snow from gusty winds. Debris ran over 1000 feet and was large enough to knock someone off their feet. We were impressed with the duration of the slide, which seemed to go on for several minutes.

The return of fresh snow will be a welcome respite from the various crusts which cap the surface in many locations. However, new snow will come with an increasing avalanche danger due to the existing surface and near-surface conditions - faceted loose surface snow, surface hoar, crusts with weak snow underneath. Expect to dial back terrain choices, way back from what we have gotten used to over the past two weeks. In your travels this weekend, take a good look at the surface and near-surface conditions before they get covered with fresh snow. Then envision that surface covered with a 6-12 inch storm or wind slab. Prep yourself by giving a thought on how to navigate the terrain during a period of elevated danger.