Flathead Range & Glacier NP

Travel conditions at upper elevations remain excellent for exploring high peaks, out-of-the-way drainages, and usually inaccessible terrain. Stay alert for isolated avalanche hazards like pockets of wind slab and sluffs that can carry you into a terrain trap. Shallow snow conditions make hitting hard things the most widespread hazard to you or your machine. 

You know it's an odd winter when our observations page and local chatter include almost no mention of the usual Middle Fork haunts and sidecountry go-tos around Whitefish Mountain Resort. Instead, we see regular obs from Comeau Pass and obscure drainages in the Whitefish Range and reports of repeated ascents of big ice lines and high peaks in Glacier Park. That's some creativity and energy. Take that, El Nino.

We've also had reports of two near-misses or avalanche accidents in the past three weeks, one of which resulted in minor injuries. While the backcountry is no horror-movie hell house, when you poke into the closets, you might find some trouble.  Gremlins, though, rather than Leatherface. That trouble consists primarily small slabs of drifted snow and long-running sluffs in steep, confined terrain. The shallow snowpack is weakening, but the evidence - or lack of evidence of instabilty - indicates buried weak layers are degrading and dormant. So if you head for high-consequences terrain - steep chutes, climbs that involve snowfields above or below rockbands, leeward ridges - stay alert for signs of danger like stiff surface snow that cracks around you, or sluffs that don't peter out promptly. 

And hey, it's a new year. The the waterfall portion of Russ' Street has been groomed, East Route is scheduled to open again to uphill traffic, and there's snow - not much - in the forecast for the weekend.