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Climbing on Mount Brown
Location Name:
Mt. Brown, GNP
Observation date:
Sunday, December 1, 2019 - 16:15
Is this an Avalanche Observation:
No
Observation made by:
Public
Location
Tabs
Quick Observation
Went ice climbing on the NW face of Mount Brown reaching a high point at about 6600 ft. elevation.
Aside from some very small loose dry sluffing and spindrift, no avalanche activity was observed.
There wasn't really much of a layred snowpack til above 5000 ft. From here and higher we found generally a poor structure snowpack with layers of crusts and facets making up the bottom of the pack with generally shallow wind slabs and a couple inches of fresh snow stacked on top of these layers. Snow depths above 6000 ft. ranged from 6-8 in. in more scoured locations, to 1-3 ft. in wind-loaded ones.
Above 6000 feet we did observe some minor cracking (2-4 ft long) in a couple of these older wind slabs, but no avalanching. No other signs of instability observed.
Began the day under low stratus clouds and climbed above them at about 5000 ft. High elevation clouds began to thicken during the afternoon and SW winds were picking up above 6000 ft. No precipitation all day.
Snowpack, Avalanche, Weather Images:
Travel Details
Region:
Glacier National Park - McDonald Lake Area
Activity:
Climbing or Mountaineering
Snowpack Details
Snowpack and Weather Details:
Terrain
Elevation of observation:
3500-5000 ft
5000-6500 ft
Aspect(s) of observation:
N
W
NW
