Sunny Stahl

We went to the northern Whitefish range to look at conditions following the most recent storm.

• We found variable wind affected surfaces above about 6500 feet.
  • The basin where we traveled seemed relatively sheltered below that elevation.
  • Above 6500 we found hard wind slabs scattered across southeast, south, and west-facing slopes. Some of these cracked easily around our skis. Some produced shooting cracks after hard stomping. These were locally up to a foot thick, and more commonly around 4-8 inches thick.
  • Above 7000 northeast winds had been dominant. The tops of northerly couliors were stripped.
• We saw lots of small debris piles from sluffs below nearby rocky chutes, some of these had pulled out small slabs. We saw what looked to be larger slides on distant peaks, but the crowns and debris were obscured by the recent snow.
• In our hand pits it took moderate force to pull uneven blocks in the storm snow. These broke in two layers of graupel. (More info in snowpack tab)

We avoided convex, open slopes harboring the stiff slabs in favor of treed, sheltered slopes where we skied 12 to 14 inches of soft settling powder.