The Great Northern wet loose show

Toured into the west side of the Flathead Range to look for evidence of buried surface hoar and get a front row seat to the high elevation (> 7000') wet loose show after four days of warm temps and abundant sunshine.

• We didn't find any lingering evidence of buried surface hoar events from earlier in March (3/3 and 3/7) in our snowpits
• We observed widespread and newly formed surface hoar in wind-sheltered terrain up to 7000'
  • Surface hoar on sunny aspects was getting cooked by the end of the day
  • Surface hoar on shady aspects (NW-NE) remained preserved with size varying from 4-12 mm
  • Surface hoar on NW aspects was covering a sun crust that varied in thickness with elevation
• We observed numerous old and new shallow wet loose slides (D1-1.5) on southerly aspects while only rollerballs visible on easterly aspects, at least from our vantage point along the ridge
• Wet loose slides on southerly aspects of Great Northern were confined to below 8000'
• Above 8000' a light but steady west wind didn't allow the snow surface on southerly aspects to soften up
• A very large an scary crack was observed behind a HUGE cornice below the north false summit of Great Northern
  • This slow, cornice failure is above the Stanton Glacier
• Moderate snow sluffing of the top 20 cm of light, cohesionless snow on steep, shady aspects while skiing
• Corn snow below wind line on southerly aspects