Boot deep is nice.

Today we went into the Flathead Range to assess new snow hazards and enjoy some fresh snow. The snow quality was superb and we only had to manage isolated problems. 

• Observed around 20 small (D1) soft slab avalanches at upper elevations. These appeared to be roughly 6 inches thick. Many started mid-slope and at cliff bases and were triggered from loose dry avalanches from above. 
• There were ~10 inches of new snow at mid and upper elevations. We found graupel and a hardness difference within the new snow (likely failure plane of natural avalanches).
• The top 2 to 3 inches of snow became moist on south aspects from solar radiation. Observed 2 wet loose avalanches on steep south-facing slopes. 
• There were pockets of wind drifted snow on all aspects at upper elevations. We ski cut many wind-drifted features throughout the day and had no results.
• We found weak faceted snow roughly 2 feet below the surface on a northeast aspect at 7300'. 

Today we decided early that we did not want to tango with north-facing aspects where a weaker structure exists. We skied steep avalanche terrain on southwest and southeast aspects where a strong melt-freeze crust exists below the new snow.