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.

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.

Pit was dug in within the boundary of a ski area, however location is a closed area with no skier traffic and no control work done at this point in the season, so should be fairly representative of similar slopes in the backcountry. No propagation during standard ECT test, but did get propagation at 93cm at 11 upon hitting other side of column after test completion. Overall looks better than the more northerly slopes in area, no depth hoar formation noticed, however still some significant faceted layers, in particular from 21cm to ground that have very limited cohesion.

Lots of roller balls and loose wet sluff on all aspects due to the warm temps. Buried surface hoar layer at 120cm still has cause for concern. Grains seemed to be starting to heal, but still a little reactive in tests. Did not propagate more then a few CM's on ECTN25, but propagated the rest of the way across and came out high energy with some hits on the other side of the column after test completion.

Slope was wind Scoured from wind event