Cascadilla

Today was a short tour in the Flathead Range to get a handle on diurnal melt-freeze conditions.

• We traveled on a supportable crust that varied in depth from 1 to 3 inches, with a dusting of new snow.
• More freeze than melt, as the crust did not soften up by our 3 pm exit.
• We did observe recent loose wet debris piles on steep, southerly aspects, which suggested that recent afternoon temperatures and solar radiation initiated these sunny slopes to slide.
• Looming in the backdrop of our day, we could still see the fracture line of a very large persistent slab avalanche that failed on March 2nd. 

Recent wet loose avalanche activity on solar slopes, but we can only guess when they occurred.

• The surface crust stayed frozen above 3500 feet today.
• Digging into the snow, moist snow was found under the crust.
• Southeast aspect @ 5500 feet. Under the 3-inch crust, we observed frozen percolation tubes and bulbs.