Mt. Cannon

Quick report

Today was the first day up the road of the 2023 GTSR Spring Opening Avalanche Program. During our quick tour we observed locked-up surface conditions, few clouds, temperatures rising to ~0*C, and calm winds. We also observed recent wolf, fox, and bear tracks. Wide propagating fresh avalanche crowns along the E and SE aspects of Heavens Peak above 8k' that appear to be similar depth and distribution to persistent slab avalanches triggered in the Flathead Range over the weekend.

Weather

Air Temp

-1

Cloud Cover

few

Wind Loading

none

Recent Snowfall

T - 10 cm

Snow Avail For Transport

small smounts

Pleasant weather for a quick tour and some road plowing!

Snowpack

Trace to 10 cm of recent snowfall atop a K- hard meltfreeze crust up to 4500' (and probably much higher). Quick pit at 4500' on a N 25* slope showed 3 pronounced crust/ice interfaces buried 20, 55, and 88 cm from the surface (HS 190cm). The uppermost crust had developed facets immediately above and below. ECTN13 @ 174 cm and ECTN15 @ 171 cm only results. I suspect that the near surface facets around the upper crust were the culprit in the persistent slab avalanche activity recently in the Flathead Range, and that this location/elevation simply did not receive enough new snow to form a cohesive slab.

Avalanche

Size

D2.5 R3

Type

U

Count

4

Aspect

W

Trigger

N

Elevation

7900 ft

Observed fresh (appearing) widely propagating natural slab avalanches on the E and SE aspect of Heavens Peak above 8k'. Additional large natural avalanches noted included 54-1 on Mt. Cannon, under Garden Wall and in Big Bend.