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Ousel Peak Traverse
Location Name:
Northern Flathead Range
Observation date:
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - 12:00
Is this an Avalanche Observation:
Yes
Observation made by:
Public
Location
Tabs
Quick Observation
Completed a traverse from Ousel Peak to the Unnamed Peak ~7000ft above the Ryan Field Airstrip, SE of West Glacier. (Later referred to as Parsnip Peak, because the conglomerate of slide paths resembles the flower of a Cow Parsnip plant.)
Climbed the Ousel Trail to the summit of Ousel Peak and descended the West face 2000'. No notable signs of instability. Even in the steepest sections, where I was anticipating sluffing in the upper portion of our soft slab. Sluffing only occured in isolated steep locations and traveled short distances (50-75 feet) with very low energy.
Climbed up gladed terrain to a pass (6450') on the ridge to the west side of Ousel Creek. West Southwest of Ousel Peak. During this climb, I photographed two old small storm slab avalanches (D2) that ran on NNE facing slopes at 6400' in upper Ousel Creek. After getting home and looking back at satelite imagery of the slope that these slides occurred on, it appears that the ground is a smooth rock slab. (deep slab?) A deep slab avalanche occured on similar rock slab terrain of Great Northern earlier this year. On almost the exact same aspect. From the 6450' pass, I descended 600' into upper Kootenai Creek.
Traversed and climbed through Upper Kootenai Creek to the summit of Parsnip Peak. During the traverse through upper Kootenai Creek, I encountered some steep wind scoured terrain where the soft slab was only 3-6 inches thick on top of the Feb 8th rain crust. The crust was very firm and slick on these North facing slopes. I tested the stability and sluff potential on some of these steep slopes with thin soft slabs. Sluffing was minor and low energy. From the ~7000' high point I skied a steep gladed ridge dividing the two main paths before entering the larger lookers left path. No signs of instability during the 3300' descent. Great skiing top to bottom, however the best snow conditions were in the trees on the flanks of the path.
Snowpack, Avalanche, Weather Images:
Travel Details
Region:
Flathead Range - Middle Fork Corridor
Activity:
Snowboarding
Snowpack Details
Snowpack and Weather Details:
Avalanche Details
Avalanche Details:
Date and Time of Avalanche:
Saturday, February 17, 2018 - 23:00
Avalanche Type:
Soft Slab
Trigger
Trigger:
natural
Terrain
Aspect:
Northeast
Starting Elevation:
above-treeline
Size
Destructive Size:
D2 Could bury, injure, or kill a person.
Relative Size:
R1 Very Small
Avalanche Location:
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