Tis the season.

Today we went into the southern Whitefish Range to assess storm slab instabilities and look for buried persistent weak layers. Continued snowfall is expected which has us concerned about how the snowpack is going to deal with the added weight.

• We found roughly 8 to 10 inches of storm snow at mid and upper elevations.
• On test slopes in sheltered terrain, we were able to initiate shooting cracks but were not able to trigger any avalanches. This told me that in sheltered terrain there was the recipe for a slab avalanche, but it is still stubborn. 
• On a leeward aspect at roughly 6800 feet, we noticed numerous intentionally triggered cornice falls which subsequently triggered slab avalanches below. Crown heights ranged 3 to 10 inches thick. These were all very small slides because they occurred in benign terrain. 
• One of the cornice failures was much larger. It appeared that it naturally failed overnight, or it was intentionally triggered yesterday. This one in particular ran much further downslope than the other intentionally triggered avalanches.
• Snowpit tests on a SE aspect at roughly 6600' revealed propagating results with easy force. It failed on facets below a VERY thin freezing rain crust (12/14 crust). 

Given the obvious signs of cracking, recent avalanches, and propagating snowpit tests, we chose to ski terrain with slope angles less than 35 degrees. We skied one at a time and communicated by radio.