Flathead Range & Glacier NP

Loud, audible collapses were felt in the snowpack on Tuesday. Carefully evaluate your terrain by sticking to slopes less than 35 degrees and steer around steep breakovers. Look for areas of wind-drifted snow in unusual locations as you climb in elevation.

If you view the map on the observations page, it is pockmarked with orange and red icons signalling avalanches and collapses. Observations of recent avalanches are becoming more sparse, while the whumpfing collapses just don’t quit! For now, these clear warning signs make it an easy decision to stay out of avalanche terrain. Just imagine if all those collapses were triggered on slopes steeper than say, 38 degrees. They might be human-triggered avalanches instead. 

A question keeps coming up in my head, "When will I feel confident stepping out into steeper terrain?" Two scenarios come to mind:

1. Crush and flush. I keep hoping to see an atmospheric river or moist southwesterly flow enter the area and dump a ton of moisture on us. A storm like this could cause a widespread avalanche cycle that flushes the weak snow out. We would see dangerous avalanche conditions for a period of time, but hopefully, we could then drop this persistent slab problem.
2. Numerous days of observations with no red flags. This is a slower approach and appears to be the path we're heading towards. Here, the snowpack will become more stable over time as it's weight slowly compresses weak snow near the ground and causes grains to sinter together. Unfortunately cold, arctic air is going to make this process even slower. A large temperature gradient in the snowpack will slow the process of rounding faceted snow near the ground. 

Patience is key. The snowpack right now is similar to taking a HOT pizza out of the oven. I am the kind of person that always dives in too soon and burns my mouth. The rest of the pizza is never as good because the roof of my mouth is scorched. Thankfully, I developed a slower approach to risk in the mountains. This snowpack, like the hot pizza, needs more time before we take a bite. I’ll be waiting for consecutive days of no warning signs before I dive in to steeper terrain. Until then, low-angle riding it is.

Education - Our next Avalanche Awareness presentation is TONIGHT at Penco Power Products, Kalispell. You can get more details about these free events on our events calendar.

Observations - Thanks to everyone who's been utilizing our new observation submission page. Try it out and help your community by sharing what you see in the backcountry. The form requires you to fill out the location fields and put a dot on a map. Be as specific or vague as you want. Our new Observation View page highlights signs of instability and allows you to filter by date or zone to pull out reports relevant to your objectives.