Snowpack

Tunnel Wind Station

Cam JohnsonFlathead Range & Glacier NP
View on map

Quick report

Tunnel Wind weather station maintenance day. Station is back on line and working.

  • Soft and dry snow in the morning gave way to moist "hot pow" during the exit at around 1230. 
    • We descended upper elevations in misty conditions and skied into a cold pool. Surface snow went from moist with a zipper crust to dry snow during the descent. 
  • Poor visibility all day, so we couldn't see what happened in the nearby alpine except for one runneled track. I'm assuming that slope produced a D3'ish size avalanche during the storm. 
  • We observed rollerballs on the roadcut during out ride out.
  • No other signs of unstable snow and snowpit tests produced non-propagating results.

I bet we were out for the last hours of good riding. Just while we were at the weather station the snow went from dry to moist. And now the wet avalanches start. 

 

Weather

Air Temp
Near freezing
Cloud Cover
obscured
Wind Loading
previous
Snow Avail For Transport
moderate amounts

Cold and wintery morning turned into a foggy, soggy, pea soup end of day. Say goodbye dry snow.

Snowpack

6600 feet north aspect. ECTX