Rollie Polies

We went to the southern tip of Glacier National Park to monitor where the snow was warming today and see how sensitive cornices might be. We started late in the morning so that we would see the warmest part of the day.

• By 11am, near trees and rocky areas, and on southeast through east through northeast aspects at lower and middle elevations the surface snow was getting moist for the first time. There was about 6 inches of soft, dry snow under that above a harder wind board or older crusts. We saw several small natural rollerballs on steep slopes and we triggerd many on test slopes. We only trigger one true wet loose avalanche on a very steep southeast facing slope around noon.
• We found that middle and lower elevation southerly aspects had already been through several melt-freeze cycles and only had about an inch of new snow (tranisitioning to moits) on top of a sun crust. However, by around 3 pm low elevation southlerlies were wetted through in the top 6 inches and we triggered more small rollers as we neared the trailhead. Middle elevation, south facing slopes seemed to be the most resilient to new warming and skied almost like corn.
• We tested several small cornices and it was easy to kick off the top 6 inches - most recent wind deposits - but we couldn't trigger a full cornice. We saw large visors hanging over leeward slopes that we didn't want to mess with.
• We tested recent wind slabs (still dry on northerly aspects above 5700') and found shallow drifts to be stubborn. They would only crack once undercut but another skier's tracks.
• We felt comfortable skiing open, south facing slopes up to 40 degrees one at a time so as not to knock eachother over with rollers or small sluffs.