Dickey

Today we went towards the crest of the Flathead to verify danger rating and assess recent wind drifting. For those curious about the approach, I'd give it a BW2.5 on the bushwack scale . If you'd like more information about the bushwack rating system, click here. This may come in handy this season. 

• 6 to 12 inches of recent snow atop a pencil-hard melt-freeze crust from the Christmas warmup.
• Winds channeled through terrain features and drifted snow onto varying aspects. Despite numerous efforts, we were not able to trigger any slabs of wind-drifted snow.
• We actually found less drifting and better skiing above 7000 feet. Below 7000 feet was variable conditions with mostly windboard.
• The Christmas crust stretched to 7700 feet. At this elevation, it was pencil to knife hard and 3 inches thick. The crust is slick. 
• The upper snowpack is faceting. I observed 1-1.5mm facets above the Christmas crust.
• We observed rollerballs and small point releases on south-facing slopes at middle elevations in the afternoon. Expect a sun crust moving forward.

Overall, conditions matched forecast. We felt comfortable stepping out into steeper terrain one at a time. 

Localized cracking around skis in wind drifted pockets. No shooting cracks and no triggered avalanches.

N aspect @ 6700 feet. 

HS: 215. Christmas crust down 35 cm. 1.5 mm facets above crust. ECTX