Observation Date: 01/24/2021

Route/Location:
We traveled the zone below the ridge that runs South to North adjacent to Stonewall Mountain outside of Lincoln, MT. Most of it is east facing with some ridges with slopes also hitting SE and NE aspects.

Weather:
Weather for both days was consistent with the forecast with temps in the high teens. Saturday sky cover was broken and Sunday was clear.

Wind:
Winds were from the west both days ranging from calm to light.

New Snow: No New Snow

Avalanche Activity:
Just an old cornice fall that was not big at all and did not trigger anything below it, on an E aspect around 7,000 elevation.

Other Comments:
We found stability to be improving with a right-side-up snowpack. The crust layer that was said to go away around 7000 feet in other neighboring zones was still existing in our zone, but it went from 1 inch thick down lower to almost cardboard thin near ridge line around 7000 and slightly above. We did not travel much higher than that. We did find wind slabs that reacted (CT) but only in isolated areas near ridgeline. We also still see persistent layers of buried surface hoar and facet/crust combos but reactivity was inconsistent and difficult to reproduce across the terrain we covered. We did not get any ECT results in our layers of concern.

Observer: Jane Quinn