Dead Calm

Today we went into the balmy (10 degrees) Swan Range to dig a pit and look for any signs of storm instability. 

• We experienced heavy snowfall rates exceeding an inch an hour at around noon. It snowed a total of 3 inches during our short outing.
• Not a breath of wind for most of the day. Light breeze ridgetop at 6700 feet around 1 PM. Snow was falling straight out of the sky.
• We observed debris piles from 3 small loose dry avalanches. These all started at upper elevations. 
• We were able to easily trigger 3 more loose dry avalanches with ski cuts in steep terrain.
• We experienced localized cracking around our skis at ridgetop. 

We felt comfortable skiing moderately steep terrain one at time. The new snow hazard in this area was easy to manage with simple ski cuts and avoiding our own sluff. I suspect this was not the case in other parts of the forecast area given the winds felt in the valley on the way home. Surfaces on all aspects at upper elevations held loose snow that will get easily transported when the winds decide to reach that elevation.