Tunnel Ridge

Day off tour into the Flathead Range. Expectations for the day were very low given the one star reviews that we were seeing come through yesterday evening. By some stroke of luck, we found quality riding out there today. I'd give it three and a half stars. The proof is in the pudding. •Objective for the day was to explore some new to us terrain, document the severity and distribution of recent wind effect, look for recent avalanche activity in Paola and Tunnel Creeks, and keep it simple given the arctic weather on tap. •We were pleasantly surprised to find soft enjoyable surface snow from the canyon floor to upper elevations. We are a little confused about when most of this snow fell, but estimate about one inch or less fell during the day today, and the rest yesterday/overnight. Recent snow amounted to about 4-5 inches at upper elevations and made for some enjoyable riding conditions. • While ascending a mostly sheltered north facing ridgeline, we noted a distinct transition into more wind effected snow at ~5500'. Below that, the old interface was softer, but still stout, supportable, and littered with hard spots from lots of recent tree bombs. • While switchbacking up a narrow portion of the ridge, we alternated between east facing slopes and west facing slopes at upper elevations. The old snow interface was very hard and slippery on the west side of the ridge and much more manageable for skinning on the east side with a gradual hardening with depth rather than a distinct hardness step. This told us that the more recent strong winds impacting this ridgeline were likely coming from the west side of the compass. • Temps were comfortable and remained above zero all day. Winds were dead at all elevations all day. We felt perhaps the faintest breath of north wind near our days highpoint, but it felt less than 5mph up there. Skies were cloudy most of the morning, but gradually breaking down after 1pm and things were clearing up a lot after 3pm with many of the major peaks in southern Glacier Park shining brilliantly. It ended up being a really nice day for a tour. • Unfortunately the majority of the clearing skies seeming to come after our descent, limiting our observations of avalanche activity in nearby terrain somewhat. We were however able to snag a photo of yet another Glide Crack opening at mid elevations in the east fork of Tunnel Creek. And a few others were spotted, but more obscured at upper elevations. •While driving a fast corner on highway 2, it almost looked like a decent size slab broke at upper elevations on the Nyack Headwall above Wahoo Creek. We didn't turn around to get a second look, so cannot verify this. Isolated shallow cracking on older wind slabs. Cracking slabs were very small, 3-4 inches thick, and confined to slopes directly on the ridgeline. Cracks only extended up to about 4 feet from my skis.

Tunnel Ridge

Quick report

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