Flathead Avalanche Center

Various low-quality shears above 1/22 rain crust. No shooting cracks or collapses all day.

Thin layer of rounding near-surface facets (0.25-0.5) above crust at 79 cm.

Small opening on ridge within surface hoar moat.

Dug in thinner part of crown roughly above where slide triggered. Crown face height varied noticeably within 20 m of profile site - 1 to 4+ ft. Basal DH thinner a few feet away. In profile, crust @ 28 was bed surface, but could easily have been FC below elsewhere. Time and conditions (winds) prevented more detailed profile.

Pit dug at lookers left side of HS-NC-R3-D3.5-O above Dickey Lake

Crown profile at Senator Beck accident site.

Accident investigation of cornice fall/ persistent slab burial that occurred on 1/5/19. Due to overhead hazard concerns, pit was dug 450 away from the crown. The snowpack here is relatively uniform, whereas the location of the avalanche was in very steep, rocky terrain with more variable snow depths. The 35 cm of new snow in the upper snowpack accumulated after the time of the incident.