New snow creating avalanche hazards
<p>This photo of a recent avalanche in Canyon Creek came from the Flathead Avalanche Center's Web site.</p>
The mountain snowpack continues to grow, as another wet storm brought snow to the hills and rain to the valleys. The Flattop Mountain SNOTEL site in Glacier National Park recorded 11 inches of snow over the weekend, and the Noisy Basin SNOTEL site in the Jewel Basin area on the Swan Range recorded 10 inches of new snow.
In West Glacier, there was an inch of precipitation, but most of that fell as a soggy rain-snow mix. At Glacier Park International Airport, there was 0.44 inches of rain over the weekend.
Currently the Flathead River Basin snowpack is at 169 percent of average, with more snow expected and much colder air through the end of the week, with highs in the teens and lows below zero.
The snow has also ramped up the avalanche danger, as new snow fell onto a weak layer of existing snow.
Skiers in the Canyon Creek area north of Columbia Falls reported avalanche activity on Sunday, Dec. 1, within the new storm snow layer as well as shooting cracks. Snowmobilers and skiers in the Graves Creek area near Olney also saw widespread cracking, with fractures propagating a few hundred feet wide.
Backcountry skiers at Marion Lake, near Essex in the Middle Fork of the Flathead River drainage, reported soft slabs with about 12 inches of new snow on top of a sun crust, according to the Flathead Avalanche Center.
The Flathead National Forest announced Nov. 25 that Erich Peitzsch will be the interim director of the Flathead Avalanche Center this season.
Peitzsch is the lead avalanche specialist for the Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road avalanche program and a physical scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, where he studies snow and ice.
He plans to work part-time as the FAC avalanche director this season and continue with his current job at the USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Glacier Park.
Peitzsch completed his master’s in snow science at Montana State University-Bozeman in 2009. He began his avalanche career as a professional ski patroller at Alpine Meadows Ski Area in Lake Tahoe, Calif.
Peitzsch and the FAC staff can be reached at 406-261-9873 or by e-mailing fac.admin@flatheadavalanche.org.