West Central Montana Avalanche Center

In the last week or two there was a widespread avalanche cycle on steep northerly facing terrain near where we dug.

In the last week or two there was a widespread avalanche cycle on steep northerly facing terrain near where we dug.

Once again upper layers seem to be improving, faceted layers that were present mid snowpack seem to be starting to show some rounding, even on this almost due north aspect, but ground layer is still very scary. This pit showed a layer from the ground up to 50cm comprised of faceted crystals up to 3mm, devolving into full on cupped depth hoar up to 5mm right above ground. This layer did propagate at 21 in an ECT. Once again a low risk, high consequence scenario. This area did not show too much in terms of reactive wind slabs but with the incoming snow and wind, that could change.

Still a relatively shallow snowpack, the recent warm temps seem to have helped the upper layers, but basal facets are still present, and more concerning, they actually propagated in an ECT in this pit, albeit with a good bit of force and a very poor quality shear. Overall things seem to be improving, but still a very questionable, very weak incohesive layer right above ground in our snowpack.