Quick report
- Collapsing
- specific
• Accumulations from yesterday’s storm totaled about 1.00” water on the Canyon floor with 8-12” of snowfall above 6000’. • Still a very thin (non-skiable) snowpack below 5500’. • First audible collapse occurred at 6900’ on a SW aspect, then a 2nd, much louder and concerning collapse further up the SW ridge at 7100’. We dug a pit here and then turned around. • Snow pit was on a SW aspect, 26° slope, with a total snow depth of 79”. We found a poor structure snowpack with a weak layer of facets and buried surface hoar about 18” down that propagated with moderate force in both Extended Column Tests. More details in pit profile. • Despite the signs of instability, we could not release any little slabs with ski cuts on small test slopes.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 20
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
• Partly sunny skies with some warm sunshine at times. Snow was moist on the surface below about 6500’. No precipitation. • Calm winds on the Canyon floor with light westerly winds above 6000’. • Daytime highs reached the mid-30s °F on the Canyon floor and the mid-20s °F at 6500’.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2.5 R3
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- SE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 8000 ft
• Good visibility with no avalanches observed in the Railway avalanche paths or in nearby terrain in GNP or the Flathead Range, save for one notable exception. • Two large slab avalanches on the SE face of Little Dog that failed on a weak layer on top of the late-Jan. crust, SS-N-R3-D2.5-O (photo). One crown released in the upper bowl just below the summit and a 2nd was triggered below by debris from the first. Total vertical fall was likely over 2000’.