Rain Line or Snow Line?

Quick report

southrockies · Jan 3, 2019 · Northwest Coastal

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Quick report

Weather
stormy
Ride Type
mellowSlopes, denseTrees, openTrees
Stayed Away
alpineSlopes
Riding Quality
Good
Snow Conditions
powder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionTemp, avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSlab

Stormy day in the Flathead with significant loading from new snow, wind and rising freezing levels. On our morning ride we noticed some small storm slabs on cutbanks. Visibility was poor and we couldn’t see into the high treeline or alpine terrain. With that in mind we chose to ride terrain under 30 degrees in steepness with no overhead hazard such as cornices. In the late afternoon the rate of snowfall was picking up again and so were the south west winds. As we made our way out in the afternoon and the snow turned to rain at around 1300 metres.