While teaching a Level 1 avalanche course on Tuesday (Dec 19) and Wednesday (Dec 20), we dug pits on north and south aspects in terrain adjacent to Whitefish Mountain Resort. Total height of snow in pits varied from 40-45 in. A common theme to our pit profiles were as followed: layer of facets that formed above the Thanksgiving rain crust, 2-3 in of snow that fell last Friday capped by a 1 cm freezing rain crust that formed on Sunday (Dec 17), and 15-25 in. of new snow from our last storm. CT results showed moderate to hard loding taps that produced Q2 shears on the facets below Sunday's rain crust on both north and souts aspect pits. ECT results were a mixture of propagating and non-propagating results and varied between moderate and hard loading taps failing on the same facet layer below Sunday's rain crust.
While touring around, we experienced cracking and collapsing on all aspects above 5500 ft and travel was difficult. We didn't observe natural avalanche activity in the areas we traveled. Initiation of facets under crust appears to becoming more difficult as each day past our recent storm passes.
Traveled around the radio tower and Ghoulie's Point adjacent to WMR.
