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We headed into the northern whitefish range, an area that seen more snowfall this month, to see how the snow pack was responding to this week’s storms.

• No signs of instability - no cracking, no whumpfing, and no triggered sluffs or slabs. We didn’t see any recent avalanches, though visibility was poor.
• 6 to 10 inches of recent snow in the valley bottoms (3700-4750'). Most of it was loose and cohesionless, in part because it's heavily rimed particles or graupel. 
• Below about 5500 feet, the recent snow sits on the 12/14 crust. Sandwiched between that crust and another (12/9) is a 7 to 10 cm thick layer of weak facets. This layer becomes harder and less well developed above about 5800 feet. 
• At about 6700 feet, the snowpack structure aligns with structures reported elsewhere: ice near the ground (not as thick), a strong midpack of hard, well-sintered grains, the 12/9 crust (45 cm < the surface) and soft (Fist to 4 Finger hard) snow to the surface. We didn't find the 12/14 rain crust in or profile, or any surface hoar. Stability tests on a northwest slope produced no propagation or clean failure planes.
• Wind effects on the surface snow became more widespread as we climbed higher. Mostly we saw a thickening or stiffening of the surface snow, but no hard slabs or drifts. We did not travel above 6750 ft, though the winds were steadier above us. We avoided consequential slopes where we found wind-stiffened snow.

In this part of the range, a natural avalanche cycle of small to large (D1-D2) avalanches is likely to follow rain or a storm that deposits dense, heavy snow at low and mid elevations.