Public Observation - Snowpit west of Whitefish Mountain Resort, Southern Whitefish Range

Location Name: 
Public Observation - First Creek, Southern Whitefish Range
Region: 
Whitefish Range - Southern (south of Coal Creek)
Date and time of observation: 
Wed, 02/22/2017 - 11:15
Location Map: 

Red Flags: 
Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
Rapid warming
Observation made by: Public
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

We dug a pit down 125 cm into a snowpack depth of 175 cm on a SW slope, new snow on top of the feb 8 rain crust was 32 cm.   A foot pen of 45 cm. Slope angle was 38 degrees at the pit.  We got a Sudden planer result at ECT of 14 on the Feb 8 crust.  Also, a resistant planer on the Jan 18th rain crust that did not propagate across the ECT (ECT of 17).  

Snowpit or crown profile photo or graph: 
Any other comments about the observation or links to outside pages that have more info on the observation: 

We avoided convex rolls and skiied slighly lower angle, supported terrain due to our sudden planer results.  We were getting balls rolling down to the bottom of our track before we skied down as the slope warmed up due to solar radiation. We felt it was warming up to much; coupled with our snow pit results so left the area mid day after two laps.

Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Cloud Cover: 
25% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Calm (No air motion)
Precipitation: 
None
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
More detailed information about the weather: 

The weather began with high clouds with a light wind in the morning.  By mid day the clouds had parted and we were getting direct sun on the southern slope the majority of the time.

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