Old gators can still snap

We wanted to see the distribution and sensitivity of the persistent slab problem in the Northern Whitefish Range. So we traveled to Red Meadow Lake and up shady aspects of Link Mountain. Found the old gators sure enough. They can still bite.

• Ski cuts and kick tests on steep (>30 degrees) NW-N-NE-E-SE aspects between 5300' and 6500' resulted in 3 D1 persistent slab avalanches failing in the surface hoar buried on 1/17.  We experienced 1 collapse on a 15 degree bench just above the convexity we were about to ski cut. 1 test slope had a shallow failure 6" deep in the 1/22 storm snow that stepped down to the 1/17 surface hoar.
• Multiple test pits between 5300' and 5800', and then again between 6300' and 6500' had propagating results that confirmed that the layer of failure was the 1/17 surface hoar. That layer is found buried between 1' and 1.5' deep. We had several small failures on a much softer crust buried only 6-8" deep which is the interface buried on 1/22. No propagation was observed at that interface in snowpack tests.
• The most reactive terrain today had the aspects and and elevations listed above, but were also open gladed slopes with views of the sky and were convex in shape. Short shooting cracks were also common on these features. Other steep, but more treed slopes had only shallow sluffing for us to manage. We did not find the surface hoar or 1/22 crust above 6500' and had no propagating failures, or ski cut results at upper elevations.