A sufficient storm

Toured into Southern Flathead to Mount Cameahwait and Unnamed 7854'.

• 1-2 inches of new in Essex at 5:00am
• 4 inches of new above 5600'. Drifted areas harbored 6-8 inches.
• Observed a series of natural loose dry avalanches on the eastern aspect of Mount Adams. 10-20 slides observed. Largest were D2 and ran approximately 1500', initiated around 7300'. We guess that these slides ran during the night on 1/27. Debris was very soft and fresh at 7:30am on 1/28.
• We were not able to identfy any crowns above these slide to see if they started as natural wind slabs. We beleive that they were triggered by a snow pillow flaking off of a tree or cliff. We think the 1/13 crust made it pretty easy for new snow to get moving, which is why so many small slides were widespread across this slope.
• During our ascent of Cameahwait, we observed quite a bit of cracking in freshly drifted snow on the Northwest side of the peak. It was easy to break small wind slabs on test features.
• Later in the day we also ascended an unnamed peak (7854'). Again we found numerous signs of windslab instabilities on the West aspect of this peak. We descended this west aspect and triggered numerous very small windslabs on the upper part of the mountain (6800'-7800'). Its worth noting that this aspect on this peak and forested all the way to the top. I think that a similar slope with less anchor points would harbor fresh drifts that could produce larger wind slabs, especially around 7000' where you start transitioning back into a snowpack with the fast slick bedsurface from 1/13.
• And finally, we found yet another large glide crack on Cameahwait today. East aspect above Sheep Creek. This is probably not new since last time I was up there on the 23rd, but I think we missed it last time due to visability.

• The morning started with broken skies with filtered sunshine, and by 10am it was a bright sunny day. Light winds from the south on ridgetop. Around 11am we were back down at 5500' and it was above freezing and very pleasant out. We started observing the early onset of loose wet actvity on south facing terrain. Numerous roller balls and small point releases were seen.
• By 12:30, The clouds started their comeback. While descending the valley around 3:00pm, we noted that the cohesionless snow of the morning was starting the feel more consolidated and slabby. The mild temps might be helping the new snow adhere to the 1/13 crust? That would be nice.

  "One can never be bored by powder skiing because it is a special gift of the relationship between earth and sky. It only comes in sufficient amounts in particular places, at certain times on this earth; it lasts only a limited amount of time before sun and wind changes it. People devote their whole lives to it for the pleasure of being so purely played by gravity and snow." 

  ​Dolores Lachapelle