Avalanche

Canyon Creek

blase reardonWhitefish Range
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Quick report

Day off lap through Canyon Creek from WMR. 

  • ~20 cm new snow.
  • No signs of wind-drifted snow, and no transport by today's light winds.
  • On sunny slopes, the storm snow got moist by early-mid afternoon. It stayed dry on shaded slopes. 
  • No cracking on steep test slopes.
  • New snow produced dry snow sluffs that ran far but not fast on shaded slopes > 35 degrees. 
  • I did not test below the storm snow. 
Turns on shaded avalanche terrain produced rollerballs. On slopes 35-40 degrees, slow but long-running loose dry slides. Saw no cracking on mid elevation slopes. Saw a few natural rollerballs that traveled > 50 vertical feet on the steep, west-facing side of Big Slide.

Weather

Cloud Cover
broken
Wind Loading
none
Recent Snowfall
20
Snow Avail For Transport
small smounts

Fog/ clouds below summit midday, then 1 short-lived break early afternoon, accompanied by radiation/ temp spike. Calm - Light southerly winds.

Snowpack

~ 20 cm of new snow on supportable melt-freeze crusts of varying thicknesses. Large dendrites or stellars on the surface. On a southerly, mid-elevation slope, the snow was moist and heavy mid afternoon, after break in the clouds and burst of radiation. Snow on shaded slopes stayed dry to canyon floor.  

Avalanche

Size
D1 R1
Type
L
Count
2
Aspect
N
Trigger
AS
Elevation
5675 ft

Several skier-triggered avalanches involving the new snow. Ran far but not fast. One big enough to push a person around.