McDonald Lake Area, GNP

Day off tour up Mount Vaught in Glacier National Park.

• A hard freeze last night produced a stout, supportable surface crust making for fast but challenging uphill travel at low/ mid elevations
• Found Thursday's rain line extending up to 6200'
• Between 4000' - 6200', new snow depths varied from a trace to 1"
• Above 6200', 3-6" of new snow in nonwind-loaded terrain with 12-18" in wind-loaded terrain
• Once we passed 7500', a thin wind-skin was observed on the surface and easily breaking and sliding downslope while descending
• Overall, wind slab was nonreactive with no other signs of instability observed during our tour
• Midday light winds and increasing clouds kept air temps below freezing and snow surfaces cold at mid/ upper elevations
• Snow surface warmed at low-elevations by late afternoon but didn't produce any new LW activity