Public Observation - Dickey Creek, Flathead Range

Location Name: 
Public Observation - Dickey Creek, Flathead Range
Region: 
Flathead Range - Middle Fork Corridor
Date and time of observation: 
Wed, 03/01/2017 - 23:59
Location Map: 

Red Flags: 
Recent avalanche activity
Observation made by: Public
Snowpit Observations
Snowpack photos: 
Any other comments about the observation or links to outside pages that have more info on the observation: 

Found good skiing on a variety of aspects from the valley bottom at 4500' all the way up to 7000'.  

10"+ of additional new snow in the valley botton with up to 40" in the higher elevations since Monday, overlaying the last rain crust and sun crust on some aspects at higher elevations.  Warming temps, strong winds and additional new/blowing snow are creating a bit of a soft 6+" slab overriding lower density snow.  

We did see a few new snow soft/wind slabs that had released.  These were all mid slope and about 6"-10", south and east aspects.  One should note that these were all on cross wind loaded terrain features.  They appeared to release because of overloading and ran on a lower density layer underlying the soft slab.  

Trail breaking was a chore, to say the least.

Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Cloud Cover: 
100% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Strong (Whole trees in motion)
Precipitation: 
Snow
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Direction: 
Southwest
Accumulation rate: 
Less than 1 in. per hour
More detailed information about the weather: 

27F in the am in the valley bottom with moderate down canyon winds when we left the car.  Winds were prevailing from the west/south along the ridge tops, moving lots of snow.  34 when we returned to the car at 5, with calm winds.

Activity: 
Skiing
Precip Rate: 
S1; light snowfall, 1cm/hour
High Temp. (C): 
1
Low Temp. (C): 
2