Marion's Big Mouth

Location Name: 
Forecaster Observation - Essex area
Observation date: 
Sunday, January 23, 2022 - 18:00
Is this an Avalanche Observation: 
Yes
Observation made by: Forecaster

Tabs

Quick Observation

Day off tour into the Flathead Range. WInds, clouds, and sub-freezing temps kept surface snow layers from becoming unstable due to radiation. 

  • 3-6" of recent snow above 1/12 Melt-Freeze crust. Already faceting in valley bottoms and shaded, sheltered slopes. In hand shears, there's a distinct interface at the crust with planar shears, but snow seems too cohesionless to form a slab in places I tested.
  • Recent winds have left wind-skin, wind crust, and dappling on many open northerly and easterly slopes. Crusts soft (4F+) and up to 5 cm thick. Found no wind slabs. 
  • More wind than expected on upper elevation ridges. Gusty and not sustained, but light to moderate blowing snow during gusts. 
  • Sun caused some roller balls to fan out on steep, mid-upper elevation southerly slopes. Not widespread, and nothing we saw coalesced into a wet loose avalanche, even in sun-sensitive chutes on S side of Essex Mountain.
  • We avoided obviously wind-loaded northerly and easterly slopes. We did ski 30-40* north with no signs of instability.
  • We avoided a very large, convex and rocky start zone on a large, consequential southeast-facing run, which was a likely spot to harbor variable snow depths and trigger points. We did sneak in lower, where the slope was more planar. Snow on this run barely sun affected, even at valley bottom. 
Travel Details
Region: 
Flathead Range - Middle Fork Corridor
Route Description: 

3700-6800'

Activity: 
Skiing
Snowpack Details
Snowpack and Weather Details: 
Hide Terrain
Elevation of observation: 
3500-5000 ft
5000-6500 ft
Above 6500 ft
Red Flags: 
Blowing snow
Persistent Weak Layers: 
Facets or Faceted Crust
New Snow in the past 24 hours: 
0.00in.
More comments about the snowpack and weather: 
Mix of sun and clouds overhead, with some clouds hanging around ridgelines. Looked more overcast to east. Gusty winds on ridge above 6500 ft. with occasional snow devils lower. L-M blowing snow with string gusts; fortunately not that many/ sustained. Lots of old cross-loading evident on steep, easterly faces from Arctic winds earlier in the month. Much of the surface snow on southerly slopes at valley bottom still dry, due to shading from ridge to south.
Blowing Snow: 
Light
Wind Speed: 
Moderate (Small trees sway)
Wind Direction: 
Southwest
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Sky Cover: 
Partly Cloudy (SCT)
Highest Precipitation Rate: 
No Precipitation (NO)
Avalanche Details
Avalanche Details: 
Date and Time of Avalanche: 
Wednesday, January 12, 2022 - 20:15
Number of avalanches: 
1
Avalanche Type: 
Unknown
Failure Plane/Weak Layer: 
Unknown
More information or comments about the avalanche: 

Lage pile of chunky, refrozen debris to looker's right of Backdoor/ Essex High Rustler. Came out of very steep trees and rocks. Looked like Loose wet slide from Thursday, but couldn't make out start point. DIdn't hit trail/ road.

Hide Trigger
Trigger: 
natural
Hide Terrain
Aspect: 
Southeast
Starting Elevation: 
below-treeline
Hide Size
Destructive Size: 
D2 Could bury, injure, or kill a person.
Hide People Involved
Number of people caught: 
0
Avalanche Location: