Pesky surface hoar in Canyon Creek

We traveled to the southern Whitefish Range to look for buried surface hoar and evaluate our Persistent Slab problem. We also wanted to look closely at a slide intentionally triggered by a skier Tuesday, February 1. While performing a crown profile, three local residents approached us and mentioned they had just triggered a slide. These folks provided excellent information on locating the slide and events leading up to, during and following the slide. Please visit their observation for full details: https://flatheadavalanche.org/observation/skier-triggered-avalanche-outside-wmr-boundary. FAC staff thanks this group for sharing information from their experience with the backcountry community.

• We performed many hasty pits looking for buried surface hoar on various slopes sheltered from the wind. We only had success finding this layer on sporadic northerly slopes at mid-elevations. 
• A soft surface slab was found intermittently and ranged from Fist to Four Finger hard.  
• We noted an eggshell thick freezing rain crust on all aspects at the mid-elevations. 
• The February 1 avalanche occurred on the leeward side of a saddle and failed on a layer of buried surface hoar. Due to the windy location of this site, the surface hoar was small-sized and not apparent to the naked eye. You can find more details here https://flatheadavalanche.org/observation/wmr-avalanche-and-snow-obs. 
• The avalanche from February 4 failed on a layer of well-preserved surface hoar, which was easy to see and found approximately 16 - 18 inches below the surface. 
• No other signs of instability were noted today.