Forecaster Observation - Red Meadow, northern Whitefish Range

The objectives today were to:

1. Assess the extent of surface snow softening throughout the day 

2. Examine any residual instability of deeper weak layers (it appears many of last week's March 14-16 wet slab avalanches released on the Feb. 10 rain crust).

By 11:00 am to 12:00 pm, the top 3 inches of surface snow on southeast and south aspects began softening. This produced great corn skiing on sunny aspects. We observed no obvious signs of instability, and observed no wet loose avalanches throughout the day. 

We were able to produce fracture and partial propagation of that fracture across the column with hard force on the Feb. 17 rain crust in our Extended Column Test (ECTN24), but full propagation did not occur. This layer is located approximately 45 cm (18 inches) from the snow surface. The Feb. 10 rain crust is located approximately 65 cm from the snow surface, for reference.

We also observed two glide cracks on an east aspect on Lake Peak at about 6000 feet. 'Tis the season to keep an eye out for glide crack formation and glide avalanches.

Finally, we observed numerous wet loose and a couple of wet slab avalanches (one cornice triggered) from last week's (March 14-16) natural avalanche cycle.