No Flathead Rain-Snow Massacre

Day off explore in the northern Flathead Range. We didn't find the crowns and fracture lines reported from a few miles away.

• Below treeline, the snow was refrozen, supportable, and topped with 1-5 cm of snow from Friday. This snow got moist by midafternoon but the surface snow remained supportable and even icy. A few patches of corn.
• At mid elevations, new snow accumulation from Friday totaled 10-12 cm. It was sitting on a ~5cm melt-freeze crust that was supportable on skis but not foot. Weaker on shaded slopes and sometimes grabby while descending, particularly between 5800 and 6200 feet. 
• The snowpack on the windward ridge we ascended was thinner than at similar elevations on leeward slopes and moist to the ground. Midseason ice layers and crusts have softened to 1 finger hard, and facets are rounding (image). ECTN 13 below the new snow/ crust structure, with no failures in a standard extended column test below that (image, snowpack details tab).
• Above treeline, new snow accumulations were more like 15-20 cm. This snow formed a very soft, barely cohesive slab that pulled off cleanly in hand shears with moderate force but showed no signs of instability while riding. This snow stayed dry all day thanks to the increasing clouds, except for a slight thickening on the sunniest slopes.
• Recent wind effects were confined tp ridgelines an consisted of 2-5 cm thick wind crusts within 10 m of the crest. Some signs that winds had blown up northerly slopes. 
• Surprisingly, we saw no crowns or debris piles, though one below us westerly slope had some scrawny, tattered trees that looked to have had some rogh days recently. Debris from early in the storm might have been buried. 

Good skiing on a beautiful day. Crest of the range is plastered.