A couple of buddies and I enjoyed the gorgeous weather and mediocre ski conditions by staying high in the Flathead Range today.
- We observed very firm refrozen melt-freeze crusts below 6200' on all aspects and much higher on solar aspects.
- We also found a generally heavily wind-affected surface slab 10+" thick wherever cold snow remained.
- We skied a variety of N through NE aspects and observed no obvious signs of instability but did opt-out of a steeper NE slope after observing propagating results in a quick pit at the top.
Quick pit @ 7350' NE 32* slope that was previously wind loaded:
- HS >320cm (buried probe + more and still couldn't find bottom)
- ECTP18@25cm below the surface (x2) on a thin well-preserved graupel and facet layer at the interface between a 1F wind slab (above) with 4F rounding facets layer (below)
Temps remained below freezing above 6500' all day, and a consistent light westerly wind blew. Gorgeous day for a long walk up high, and we were rewarded with a pair of fresh wolf tracks to boot!
