Snowpack

Desert Mtn

Avalanche.org observerFlathead Range & Glacier NP
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Quick report

We only skied one lap (slow going both on the snowmobiles and skin track, and we ran out of time) but it was great snow! In general we still kept things pretty cautious and didn't ski anything steeper than 35 degrees. Seems like areas protected from the wind are where it's at. Surprisingly we did not see any signs of instability. Despite getting our sleds stuck a handful of times (or maybe more...who's counting?) and using that time to also check snowpack with some handpits, we did not find any instabilities. Often the backslope of the roadcut will show signs of instability, and with trying to trigger small slabs we didn't get any to move.

Weather

Air Temp
3 degrees, rising to 10 throughout our tour.
Cloud Cover
clear
Wind Loading
light
Rain Elevation
n/a
Recent Snowfall
around 40 cm
Snow Avail For Transport
none

Beauty of a day

Snowpack

Lots of new snow ( a little over a foot) with suprisingly very little wind affect. Saw some slight drifts at the top, but that was it. No evidence of heavy winds. Dug a put at about 6200' on a SE aspect, where we planned to ski. Snow total was right about 100cm. We had an ECTN16 about 70 cms down...failed on old snow. Didn't really see the 12/22 facet crust combo.