Professional Observation - Grave Cr, Whitefish Range

With the northern Whitefish Range getting the bulk of the storm last night we opted to ride in the Grave Cr. area today.  

• The parking lot had 10-12 inches of new snow and it steadily increased to 18-20 inches in the higher elevations.
• The crust from our last sunny stretch was still evident under the new snow in the lower elevtions, however it thinned( 1 cm) and was breakable in the higher terrain.
• We did find a layer of buried surface hoar (1-1.5 cm) above this crust on a east facing slope at 6600'.  At this location there was 45 cm of new snow on top of it.  It was unreactive in our tests.
• The new snow had yet to settle out was still unconsolidated in the more protected areas(F-4F density).  Near the ridgetops we could see substantial lenses of wind-loading that had occured.  We opted to stay away from these slopes due to the sheer amount of snow.
• We did see a few shooting cracks under the sleds as we approached these slightly denser, wind-loaded areas.
• We found weak instabilities within the storm snow at the density change form F to 4F(10-15 cm down) and again at the new snow/sun crust interface.
• Skies were overcast and temps ranged in the mid teens all afternoon.