Red Meadow area

We joined the many sledders and sled-skiers/boarders who rode out of the valley gloom and up into the sunshine around Red Meadow Lake.

Our objective - besides soaking in some vitamin D - was to get on as many aspects as we could at upper elevations in the central Whitefish Range. We circled around a peak, sampling N, W, E, SW, and NE aspects.

• We were surprised by how cold it was, even in the sun at upper elevations. Air temperatures never approached freezing there. 
• The only signs of instability/ hazard we saw were two small natural wet loose avalanches on a mid-elevation, westerly slope and a few rollerballs on a steep upper-elevation, southerly slope.
• The snow in spots exposed to the sun was dry-moist but not wet. 
• A crop of large (10mm) fresh, surface hoar covers the snow surface on shaded slopes at all elevations. It is upright on sheltered mid and upper elevation slopes. We did not find it in spots/ on slopes that receive direct sun. 
• In hand pits, we found a pair of thin melt-freeze crusts/ ice layers 8-10" below the snow surface on shaded, mid-elevation slopes. These layers faded at about 6500 feet. They were likely deposited by the Christmas coal-in-the-stocking rain. 
• Typically leeward slopes (easterly) held very soft, loose snow. On a northerly slope, the surface snow felt more settled and consolidated. This snow produced clean shears about 12-15" below the surface , though it showed no other signs of instability. 

We rode steep, easterly slopes normally prone to windloading. and steep northerly slopes, but avoided steep southerly slopes with rollerballs.

Media to follow.

A few rollerballs on upper elevation, southerly slopes at upper elevations.