Going-to-the-Sun Road

Quick report

First day of snow removal operations on the Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier National Park this season. Teamed up with the USGS today to provide a forecast to the road crews and to start collecting snowpack data in the upper McDonald Valley. We observed many recent wet loose avalanches in the upper valley today. Most of which, we believe to have failed on the Equinox Crust. W also observed several hard slab avalanches on both solar and polar aspects. Two large avalanches heard around 1:00pm this afternoon and several others that likely occurred over the weekend.

Snowpack

Snowpit data collected near the western flank of the 54-1 slide path. • 5122' North on a 32 degree slope. HS=180cm • 3 distinct crust layers observed. Equinox crust buried 40cm beneath the surface. Leep day Crust? (2/29) buried 60cm. And Feb 3rd facet crust complex can be found 95cm deep at this location. • We conducted PST tests on both the February crust complex and Leep day crust. • PST 35/100 END @ 85cm (2/3). 1-2mm rounding facets above this pencil hard crust. • PST 45/100 END @ 120cm (2/29). 1.5mm rounding facets below this pencil hard crust. • We were surprised to find relatively dry conditions on due northerlies down to about 4500'. And meltwater percolation from recent warming events does not appear to have yet been significant enough to reach our buried PWL problems. It is possible that we will see an uptick in wet slab avalanche activity on northerlies once melt water finally has a chance to test these weak layers.

Going-to-the-Sun Road

Quick report

Weather

Snowpack

Avalanche