Forecaster Observation - Apgar Mountain - Glacier Natl. Park

We toured up to the Apgar Mountain lookout from the Camas Road gate mostly following the NE ridge to the summit.

Trailbreaking was arduous with 1-3+ feet of powder snow on top of the February 10 rain crust. The new snow became heavier as the day went on with rising temperatures. Above 4000 feet we experienced (heard and felt) four collapses at different points along the ridge. Also at some locations above 4000 feet there were small cornices, pockets of wind slab, and one very small wind slab avalanche that probably ran sometime earlier in the morning (crown was less than 1 foot deep and about 15-20 feet across). At a cross-loaded location at 4800 feet, a crack shot out from under our skis and ran over 50 feet up and across the slope (photo).

We dug a snowpit just below the lookout at 5200 feet on a NE aspect, 24 degree slope. Here we found 63 cm (2 feet) of soft powder snow sitting on top of a thin layer of rounding facets just above the Feb. 10 crust. We observed fracture but no propagation in our extended column test (video). However it is important to note that the snow pit was located in a sheltered location out of the wind. There was not a cohesive slab sitting on top of the Feb. 10 crust which likely explains the results.

After observing all the obvious signs of unstable snow earlier in the day we chose low-angled slopes sheltered from the wind for our ski descent and mostly re-traced our skin track back down.