Forecaster Observation - Red Meadow vicinity, Whitefish Range

Location Name: 
Forecaster Observation - Red Meadow vicinity, Whitefish Range
Region: 
Whitefish Range - Northern (north of Coal Creek)
Date and time of observation: 
Fri, 01/13/2017 - 12:00
Location Map: 

Red Flags: 
Recent avalanche activity
Observation made by: Forecaster
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

The focus of today's tour was to look at snowpack structure prior to a forecasted warm wet system system that will arrive early this week. We dug a north and south facing pit at approximately 6250' just northeast of Red Meadow Lake in the northern Whitefish Range. 

  • The north pit was 149 cm in depth with the south pit at 102 cm.
  • Widespread surface hoar, up to 10mm, was found on all aspects above approximately 6000'.
  • 8-10" of low density snow, that fell last Monday, comprises the surface snow beneath the surface hoar.
  • On our north facing pit a thin layer of decomposing surface hoar was found beneath the low density snow layer
  • The mid pack consists of a supportable soft slab (1F-).
  • The basal layer of the pack is 12-18" of well developed depth hoar (4-6mm).
  • The north facing pit showed instbility at the decomposing surface hoar layer: ECTN 14@111, ECTN 16@111, CTM 11@111. Our south facing pit had inconclusive stability test results.
Snowpack photos: 
Snowpit videos (tests, etc): 

January 13, 2017 Surface hoar and depth hoar

Weather Observations
Cloud Cover: 
25% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Light (Twigs in motion)
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Direction: 
Southwest
Activity: 
Skiing