Wet carnage in Flathead Range

In the Flathead Range, we found stable conditions this morning with wet loose instabilities quickly developing by noon. There were plenty of recent destructive wet avalanches to gawk at and make it an easy decision to retreat from steep terrain once surface crusts broke down.  

• At low to mid elevations, we found 2" surface refreeze over saturated wet grains.  At mid to upper elevations, we found a soft 1" surface crust (on all but steep north) capping ~8" of recent moist to dry snow.  These crusts effectively put a lid on any surface instabilities this morning.  Surface crusts quickly broke down mid-day during a brief solar / greenhousing period.   We starting ski cutting rollerballs and saw one natural wet loose avalanche from sunlit, rocky terrain (@ 12:15 p.m.)
• We observed over a dozen wet loose avalanches that ran in the past few days or week on all aspects.  These were mostly D1.5-D2 in size, with a few D3s.  A couple appeared to step down to wet slabs.  Most started at mid-elevations and ran to low elevations.
• The only dry snow untouched by surface warming was on high, steep north.  The lack of any recent dry slab avalanches along with a lack of results from hand pits, test slopes, and ski cuts suggest that storm slab issues are healing up.