Lolo Pass

The weather was very warm today. On our drive up Hwy 12 to the Lolo Pass Visitor's Center, we noted widespread rollerball and wet loose avalanche release on south facing road cuts along the highway. During our ride and tour, we observed wet surface snow on south aspects. North aspects are significantly cooler and the snowpack is faceting. Poor snowpack structure still exists in areas that have held onto old November snow. We found a layer of buried surface hoar but did not note any reactivity with this layer. We performed an extended column test that resulted in a hard propagation within a layer of facets at the ground. Overall, the snowpack is still very thin on all aspects, and hazards such as rocks and trees exist under very little snow.

We got a hard propagating result in an extended column test within a layer of facets at the ground.

The snowpack is thin on all aspects. North and east facing pockets that are shaded or previously wind loaded are deeper. On north aspects, we saw widespread surface hoar development. On south aspects, we found active surface melt and melt-freeze crusts.

We dug a pit on a northeast aspect at 6500'. The depth of our pit was about 2.5 feet (77cm). At the top, we found well-developed surface hoar. About midway down we found an ice lense and a melt freeze crust that is faceting. Below this, we found a layer of buried surface hoar. At the ground is a thick layer of facets. We performed an extended column test and got a hard propagating result within this layer of facets.