Public Observation - Stanton Mountain, Glacier National Park

Note: This avalanche activity was previously reported on 2/11.

On Saturday 2/13 we descended the western flank of the western slide path (lookers left) on Stanton Mountain in Glacier National Park and got a closer look at the debris. While entering the main path from the west, we crossed several relatively small pocket slides that had released from steep rocky terrain right below the SW ridge. The width and length of these smaller slides varied from 20 x 100ft - 60 x 300ft. The bed surface for these slides also varied. In some cases, these slides exposed the ground where they initiated, but as they traveled down slope, they glided on an old snow surface within the pack (depth unknown).

The photograph I uploaded is not the greatest quality, but what it shows is the terminus of the debris in the gut of the path. This is the debris that accumulated from the failures shown in the observation from 2/11. This debris ran approimatley 1700 vertical feet terminating at an elevation of 5300ft. This is just another testament of the potential for relatively small pocket slides to travel great distances down slope. Wet slides are extremely heavy and carry a lot of energy once initiated.