Quick report
Traveled to Link Mountain to de-rime the weather station. Compared to earlier this winter, it was almost nekkid. Recent natural avalanches crossed the groomed trail below Red Meadow lake. Recent bouts of winds have deposited a chaotic sea of drifts at near ridges above about 6500 feet. Even away from ridges, many slopes harbor a layer of drifted snow thats mostly supportable. It made for some harder-than-it-should-be skinning and variable skiing.
Some short cracks 10-15 cm deep and < 100 cm long in drifted snow, mostly where it sat on older, very hard snow.Weather
- Air Temp
- 12
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 2 in
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
S-1 to S1 snow showers through the day, with alternating obscured and broken skies. Accumulation of 1" on sleds mid afternoon. Appears to have been 2-5" in since Sunday AM, with lots of debris scattered on trail at low elevations and drifts along groomed trail. Sunday's snow not as rimed/ graupel as in Flathead Range. Light but gusty SW winds today, with light drifting at ridgeline.
Snowpack
5-12 cm of recent and/ or drifted snow covers a 4F hard, 10-15 cm thick layer of drifted snow that was mostly unreactive. No results ski cutting a few short pitches of 35-40* terrain below ridges and slope of similar steepness near a ridge where the snow surface was hard.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2.5 R3
- Type
- HS
- Count
- 2
- Aspect
- W
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 5800 ft
Poor visibility and recent/ drifted snow prevented a good survey for recent avalanches. Nothing off Red Benchmark hit Red Meadow Lake.