Quick report
This was a trip to check for new snow amounts, snow character, and snow behavior. I found 5-6" of dense, wet snow at my parking elevation of 4,200'. This provided just enough coverage to re-open some roads to reasonable riding. As I climbed, new snow amounts increased significantly. This area picked up the low end of snow totals during the first day and a half of the storm, but was working to move back in the other direction with today's moisture. Remarkably, today's snow was falling without wind up to 7,000'. Above this I found more evidece of wind drifting, though the slabs I found were generaly soft and unreactive.
Minor cracking in fresh, soft wind slabs.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- light
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Steady snowfall throughout the day, with calm to light winds. New snow was slightly moist, but quite fluffy. It was snowing in Missoula, raining in Bonner, and snowing by Clearwater Junction, in both directions of my travel.
Snowpack
New snow above the widespread melt-freeze crust that formed on 3/7 and 3/8:
4200' - 5-6"
5,000' - 9-12"
5,500' - 14-18"
6,000' - 18-22"
7,000' - 24-28"
At lower elevations, up to around 5,000', there is a thin rain crust present from early in the storm. This faded above 5,000'. New snow was composed of large stellars, which felt just a tiny bit moist, but skied bubbly. Even the road pow on the sled was coming up over the hood and into my face.
Avalanche
I observed a D1 cornice collapse that had triggered a small wind slab on a SE aspect at 7,000'. I estimate that this had occurred sometime on 3/12.