Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
We toured up to 7600' on an East aspect in the Flathead Range near Essex. We were victims to the inversion overnight with pretty severe glopping and a lack of skin wax made for strenuous travel at lower elevations. A glide avalanche was observed on the skin in on a SE aspect at middle elevations. We skinned up an east aspect and observed this new wind slabs atop the most recent crust. Wind slabs ranged from 2-5" in thickness being thickest in cross loaded gullies. Isolated crack occurred on switchbacks while skinning, but no shooting cracks in front of the ski were observed. We felt comfortable skiing avalanche terrain avoiding gullies and bowls that could harbor thicker wind slabs. The sky was overcast which limited warming throughout the day. Winds at the beginning of the day were warm and out of the SW, throughout the day they began to come out of the NE and felt much colder - a sign of the cold front coming in. The change in winds meant snow was being drifted in all directions and we could observe blowing snow through middle and upper elevations throughout the day.