Great day for crampons

Location Name: Marias Pass Observation date: Friday, February 11, 2022 - 15:30	Is this an Avalanche Observation: No

Observation made by: Public

Tabs

Quick Observation

Winds finally died down to allow passage up into the high alpine around Marias Pass. Calm conditions or light winds from the E-NE with occassional clouds drifting in from east side. Sometimes the clouds brought very light snow flurries, but with only trace amounts of accumulation.
Otherwise skies were mostly sunny and it was a great day to be up high.
Sneaker cold front from the east cooled temps to well below freezing and crusted up the snowpack's surface last night. Still pretty locked down and crusty during the early afternoon exit. Sub-freezing temps at Marias Pass until mid-afternoon.
This new surface crust thinned out and mostly disappeared by about 8000' elevation. The cramponing was excellent.
No signs of instability and no avalanche activity today. Not a lot of wet loose avalanches noted from yesterday either, mostly just rollerball activity, but a handfull of D1 wet loose on steep sunny aspects that likely ran yesterday afternoon. No recent slab avalanches to be seen.

Snowpack, Avalanche, Weather Images:

Travel Details

Region:

Flathead Range/Glacier National Park - John F. Stevens Canyon

Route Description:

Up SW ridge of Little Dog to summit at 8610'.

Activity:

Skiing

Climbing or Mountaineering