Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
- Collapsing
- widespread
• No new avalanche activity observed today save for one little D1 wet slab we triggered while skinning up the ridge. This occurred at about 6800’ on a SW aspect, 38° slope. • Observed a more recent looking crown that likely ran yesterday on the east face of Snowshed Mountain in the Flathead Range, HS-N-R2-D2-O. • Hanging Tree Main also ran, likely sometime on Sunday, Jan. 28th, HS-N-R4-D2-O. This crown extended across the path. A few hundred feet below the crown, the debris gouged to the ground and took out the winter’s snowpack. Debris terminus location could not be determined. • We investigated the crown of the previously reported a large avalanche that ran in the I-Beam Main path, HS-N-R3-D3-O. o We suspect this ran sometime on Sunday, Jan. 28th. There was some more recent snow on the crown and inside some 2-3” cracks separating sections of slab that failed, but then arrested on the slope. o The failure layer was the faceted snow resting on top of the now much decomposed late Dec. crust (pit profile). o Debris ran about 1500 vertical feet to near 5800’ elevation terminating well above the highway. • Snowpack is rapidly melting below 5500’ with plenty of bare patches showing up on sunny slopes. • We experience numerous audible collapse that became more frequent as we travelled above 6000’ elevation. • Snowpack structure is poor with facets around the late December crust along with faceted layers beneath the crust that are now becoming weaker with the presence of liquid water.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
• Scattered clouds with no precipitation and light winds from the SW. • Inverted air temperatures in the morning with a superficial refreeze of the surface snow up to about 5000’ elevation. Overnight temps only dropped to the high-30s °F above 5000’. • Daytime highs reached the mid-40s to low-50s °F on the Canyon floor and the mid-40s °F above 6000’ elevation.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R4
- Type
- HS
- Count
- 3
- Aspect
- W
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 6800 ft
Likely ran sometime on Sunday, Jan. 28th