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BNSF Avalanche Safety Field Observations
Location Name:
Running Rabbit and Snowlip Mountains (Grizzly Gulch)
Observation date:
Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - 22:15
Is this an Avalanche Observation:
No
Observation made by:
Professional Observer
Location
Tabs
Quick Observation
Ascended the Second Slide avalanche path on the south face of Running Rabbit mountain and continued onward to the Running Rabbit/Snowslip Ridge. Continued east, then southeast to the Snowslip weather station and descended the Shed 7 West avalanche path.
Mostly clear skies all day with no precipitation and light SW winds. Temperatures in the morning were inverted with values in the mid-teens °F at the Canyon floor but near freezing above 6000 feet elevation. By the afternoon, temperatures ranged from the high-30s to high-40s °F above 6000 feet elevation and into the low-50s °F at the Canyon floor.
Solar aspects have now undergone a few melt-freeze cycles and the associated surface crust has thickened to a few cms to almost 20 cm in some locations.
This crust helped to keep wet loose avalanching and rollerball activity to a minimum this afternoon.
Meanwhile on shady aspects there is still cold powder snow with a healthy crop of surface hoar growing on the top (photo 1).
Overall we found mostly stable snow with only a couple of small wet loose avalanches running today on the steepest slopes on sunny aspects.
That being said, we avoided these steep sunny slopes, but suspect ski cuts could have easily triggered some wet loose avalanches.
One small (D1.5) wet loose ran today in the Infinity avalanche path. Debris ran 1/3rd path.
Chunks of the Shed 7 West cornice have broken off with debris running ½ path.
A larger chunk of cornice fell off the summit of Running Rabbit (east aspect) sometime in the past couple of days (photo 2).
No slab avalanche activity observed.
Snowpack, Avalanche, Weather Images:
Travel Details
Region:
Flathead Range/Glacier National Park - John F. Stevens Canyon
Activity:
Skiing
Snowpack Details
Snowpack and Weather Details:
Terrain
Elevation of observation:
3500-5000 ft
5000-6500 ft
Above 6500 ft
Aspect(s) of observation:
N
NE
E
SE
S
SW
W
NW
Persistent Weak Layers:
On the surface
New Snow in the past 24 hours:
0.00in.
Avalanche Details
Avalanche Details:
Date and Time of Avalanche:
Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - 22:15
