Stalled out

Headed to the northern Whitefish Range (Ten Lakes area) for a baseline snowpack evaluation.

Snowpack structure similar to southern Whitefish Range:

• 6-9 inches of settled soft, dry snow sits on the very hard crust buried 12/3.
• There's a thin, very soft layer between the soft slab and crust. It does not consist of well-developed facets. More of a density change that was buried 12/7.
• The soft slab was not reactive to a person's weight where we traveled, unlike 12/8 in the southern Whitefish Range, where we found it reactive.
• We did not find the rain crust reported from 12/7 in the Mission, Swan, and Apgar Ranges.
• The 12/3 crust extends to at least 7200 feet. It did not seem to be getting softer.
• The snowpack below the 12/3 crust was unreactive (ECTN 26) in a large column test at about 6000 feet.

On the windward side of a ridge near 7100 feet, we found a few soft drifts 1-2 feet thick. These were unreactive.

1-2 feet of new and drifted snow would probably result in a reactive slab that failed above the 12/3 crust.