Public Observation - Little Dog, Glacier Park

Location Name: 
Public Observation - Little Dog, Glacier Park
Region: 
Outside of the Advisory Area
Date and time of observation: 
Wed, 02/10/2016 - 09:30
Location Map: 

Red Flags: 
Recent avalanche activity
Rapid warming
Observation made by: Public
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

Climbed SW ridge of Little Dog near Marias Pass this morning. Snowpack surface barely set up overnight which made for some punchy skiing on the approach to the ridge.  Despite moderate to strong W-NW winds all morning, there was no windloading since the snowpack surface was wet on all aspects below about 6000-6500' and on sunny aspects (melting rime) up the summit at 8610'.  On shady aspects above 6000-6500' the snowpack surface was a mix of melt-freeze crust, wind hammered hardpack, and still frozen rime.

Observed no wet loose activity from the previous couple of days and didn't see any today either, but was back at the car by noon. Across the Ole Creek drainage on the east face of Sheep Mountain, noticed a recent cornice failure which appeared to have triggered some windslabs (photo) .  There is also a glide crack beginning to open (photo) at about 8000' elevation on the south face of Little Dog.

Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Cloud Cover: 
25% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Above Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Strong (Whole trees in motion)
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Direction: 
West
More detailed information about the weather: 

Temperature at 9:30 am on summit was 28 deg F.  Didn't measure it, but it had to have been 45-50 deg F in the parking lot at Marias Pass around noon.

Activity: 
Skiing
High Temp. (C): 
10
Low Temp. (C): 
-2.0