Mt Marston

We traveled to the west-central Whitefish Range to observe the aftermath of the recent Atmospheric River and wind storm. 

• 4-5 inches of fresh snow at the trailhead (3800') fell on mostly dirt and improved the riding. 
• Around 12" of recent snow rests on the crust formed during last weekend's rain.  This crust extends to the Mt Marston Lookout (7348') but thins with elevation.
• Surprisingly, the winds did the most damage at mid-elevations, well below ridgelines. 
• Despite not observing signs of instability, we felt uneasy traveling beneath or on steep east and northeast terrain. We altered our route to avoid those areas and had a blast skiing low-angle gladed terrain.
• The powder brought the riders out with 8 vehicles at our trailhead and 19 at Olney.

No collapsing noted. Cracking was limited to the very soft surface slab. Cracks only propagated a foot or two.

One pit on a northeast aspect at 7000 feet. HS=180 cm. The top 15 cm was low-density snow with just a touch of soft slab properties. This capped a dense 15-20 cm layer of wind-affected snow from the recent strong wind event. The crust from last weekend's rain rested beneath the wind slab.

ECTP 21 beneath the crust, 30 cm down.

ECTP 23 on the January Drought Layer, 75 cm down