Avalanche forecast

Flathead Range & Glacier NP

Flathead Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Fri
Alpine
1 · Low
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
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Out of date — this forecast expired 2 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Enjoy sunny weather and mostly stable avalanche conditions today. Avoid traveling beneath glide cracks. Stay alert for small, isolated avalanche hazards that can have outsized consequences in steep terrain. 

Avalanche problems

  • Glide Cracks

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely
    Size
    2–3

    Conditions are increasingly favorable for glide cracks to fail, producing large avalanches that involve the entire season's snowpack. Freezing levels will again climb to roughly 6000 feet with mostly sunny skies. The snowpack will receive plenty of direct solar radiation on steep, southerly slopes. This heat and energy can accelerate creep and glide and the likelihood of slabs failing. 

    Reducing your exposure to this hazard is straightforward: stay out from under open cracks. 

    Avoid traveling in the runouts beneath glide cracks. These can fail without warning. 

    Photo: Chris Gotschalk

Avalanche Discussion

Observations continue to paint a clear image of low danger. Riders are finding small and inconsequential avalanche problems in steep terrain. Those problems include loose dry and loose wet avalanches. The last reported triggered wind slab was on January 26th.

Manage both flavors of loose snow avalanches with defensive riding strategies. If you choose to enter steep terrain, allow your sluff to run next to or ahead of you. Don’t let it run over you. Move to shadier slopes if you begin to see signs of rollerballs or pinwheels during the heat of the day.

We will likely take Glide Avalanche off the problem list with the return of cooler weather. We decided to highlight this avalanche problem because of the potential consequences, the sheer number of glide cracks, and the increased chances of failure with warm weather.

Changing Conditions Ahead:

An observation from Nasukoin yesterday (Wednesday) tells the story of surface conditions. The rider called it “facet quicksand” and “never been in snow so sugary and cohesionless.”

This sugary snow is the foundation for the next snow to land on. IF snow accumulations meet or exceed forecasted amounts, we will see avalanche activity. We often see a rash of near-misses and accidents when mid-season persistent weak layers get buried by snow. Please, adjust your terrain selection to fit the avalanche conditions. Conditions this weekend will be drastically different than those we’ve gotten accustomed to the past two weeks. 

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