Public Observation - Baldhead Ridge, Flathead Range

Stayed at Challenge cabin all weekend and experienced lots of changes in weather. Friday saw sunny skies, warm temps, and high west wind. Sun crust developed on southern exposures and north aspects remained powdery to 6000'.  The photo from Friday was a natural avalanche on the southern face of baldhead proper. We expect that a cornice triggered the slab and subsequent crowns propagated away.  Friday snowpit 6500 NE aspect revealed no propagation. Mid Feb crust was buried under 100cm of snow. We did not find any evidence of an upside down snowpack at elevation although facets were forming below the crust.  Friday night, 5cm of dry graupel fell over the area. Saturday pit was 7000 feet ENE aspect. Again no propagation and 5-10 cm of fresh snow. Winds were light on Saturday an no transport or slab formation was observed. Last night 6-8" of heavier snow fell across the area. Todays pit was 6900 feet south aspect. The beforementioned suncrust was buried under 25cm snow and was touchy. ECTN 4 on this layer. We suspect the graupel laying on the sun crust and buried under the heavier snow was to blame. Also ECTP 28 at 50 cm depth. The mid Feb rain crust was 90 cm deep and total snow depth was 240 cm. We stayed off steeper south aspects when exiting to avoid the touchy surface slab. Snowing extremely heavily (2-3"/hour) when leaving the area. Seems like areas south of baldhead mountain avoided the crazy winds observed yesterday.  Winds were calm all day today and temps dropped into the teens. North aspect skiing was excellent.