Today we went into the Flathead Range for a quick day to ride low angle terrain and get a feel for storm snow and buried week layers. Knowing what lurked beneath the storm snow kept us out from any terrain steeper than 30 degrees.
We had a lot of discussion on our ascent about recent avalanches and the lack of feedback we were getting prior to the large avalanche we triggered. Our theory is that the weak layer is just starting to get buried to a depth that is making it more difficult for the weight of the person to trigger, at least in this location. This makes a very dangerous situation. Feedback may become less "in your face" with a slab that is more dangerous.
Numerous small avalanches were easily triggered on anything steep enough to slide (touchy). These were all harmless to a person due to the terrain we were in.
We triggered this avalanche at our high point. Other than wrapping up the ridge, I almost couldn't imagine it propagating any wider. Crown height averaged around 2 feet thick with some wind loaded areas being up to 3 feet.
Visibility made identifying any specifics challenging. Speculated time of occurrence. The only thing we could confirm was debris in the runouts of 2 paths. It seems fair that they were at least D2 in size.
