The Wonders and Perils of Spring

We planned to get into the Northern Whitefish Range today, but we got turned around by the high snowline (at least 5,800 feet) and difficult access at lower and middle elevations. We headed back to the reliable coverage around Whitefish Mountain Resort where we found spring conditions.

• We found spring snow on east to south to west aspects:
  • The top 3 to 6 inches were moist to wet at all elevations by early afternoon. We couldn't get any of the wet snow to move today. However, many roller balls and several small loose wet avalanches ran yesterday, which indicates that sunny slopes are on their second day of the melt-freeze cycle. 
• On north and northeast aspects we found dry winter snow:
  • At ridgelines above 6,500 feet we found old, wind blown snow. In sheltered areas above 6,000 feet we found soft (Fist to 4 Finger) cold snow. We skied some short steep pitches on northerly slopes without any sluffing or instability. 
  • We dug two snow pits on northerly slopes and found no propagating test results and no obvious weak layers in the upper snowpack.
  • Northerly aspects below 6,000 feet had an inch or two of moistening snow above older crusts.
• Glide cracks around Big Mountain continue to expand. Despite freezing overnight temperatures, we found the snowpack wet to the ground on terrain with open cracks - mid-elevation, sunny slopes.