Middle Fork

Not every day do you get a 1 to 2-foot dump followed by a cold sunny day. Snowmobiling yesterday was bumper-deep, and today was more like windshield-deep. We traveled into the Flathead Range to inventory recent avalanche activity. 

• Observed many D1-D2 soft slab avalanches at middle and upper elevations. 2 avalanches appeared D3 in size. 
• Some avalanches were thin soft slabs that appeared to have failed on a density change mid-storm, while the larger ones looked to have failed deeper in the snowpack. See the avalanche tab. 
• We triggered one long shooting crack with the snowmobile on a roadcut at lower elevations. We did have localized cracking around our skis. These seemed to break roughly 8 inches below the surface. 
• Encountered some wind-stiffened snow above 6000 feet on a ridgeline. Observed no active wind transport throughout the day. 

media soon

Numerous recent avalanches were observed. Many small storm slabs and a few larger slab avalanches that we suspect failed deeper in the snowpack. Was able to trigger a long shooting crack on a steep roadcut at lower elevations.

See pit profile. 

The facets we observed around the 12/22 crust did not appear as weak as observed in the Swan or Whitefish Ranges.  They are large facets, but not a big step in hardness. This may be a result of aspect. The layer is also getting buried to a depth where feedback will be more sparse.