Flathead walkabout

Today we went into the Flathead Range to get a baseline on the deepening snowpack. We were pleasantly surprised to find roughly 2 feet of snow on south aspects and roughly 3 feet of snow on north aspects at mid and upper elevations. 

• New snow drifted into fresh wind slabs on north and east aspects. We found them to be small and reactive to the weight of a rider. Wind slabs were 4 to 10 inches thick, propagated up to 18 feet wide, and only ran a short distance. Although we found them to be small in size, we both discussed how dangerous it would be to get caught and dragged over the rocks and trees below. More info in the avalanche tab.
• We found a good snowpack structure at locations where recent snow fell on bare ground. This was on southerly aspects at low and mid-elevations. 
• We found old snow from mid October on northerly aspects at mid-elevations, and all aspects above roughly 7200'. The distribution of this old snow was variable and "pockety" due to an impressive wind event that stripped old snow down to bare rock at upper elevations (see photo). 
• The snowpack tests we conducted all showed good stability at this time. We did find a faceted crust on a southwest and north aspect above 7000'. Though it did not fail in any snowpack tests, we will be keeping an eye on this interface as we move ahead.

We chose to ski down our up track due to timing, NRSAW, and a healthy dose of bush in our other options. The best riding we found was above roughly 5500' and in open meadowed areas.