February-Let the storms begin

It has been an interesting winter thus far.  December and January plagued with snow storms few and far between.   It is not unprecedented, in fact, pretty standard to have somewhat dry conditions early season.  This year however seemed more extreme.  While there was no snow, there was ample nice days to get out and enjoy the snow that we did have.  February was the polar opposite of January.  To me, it seems over time that Montana's climate has gone more to extremes.  Rather than consistent seasonal weather, we seem to be getting much larger temperature swings, and weather events that drop 1/4 of our yearly precipitation average in a single weather event.  By the law of averages, we end up getting close to our average precipitation by the end of the season, or year however in my opinion it seems to be either all or nothing more often.  With this theory in mind, and our dismal precipitation amounts in December and January, I had a sneaking suspicion it would snow almost all of February.  Low and behold we received one or two bouts of arctic air, numerous wind events and snow all but a few days the entire month.  Thinking back on it I believe I only saw the sun 2 days of February.  It reminded me much of the winter of 2014 when it did snow every day in February and turned out to be a record setting year.   My theory and concern with these extreme seasonal swings is that it is hell on our snowpack usually.  Super dry periods with high pressure, followed by huge cold snaps, wind, constant snow and periodic rain events create unhappy snowpack's.  Snowpack's do not like drastic changes.  This season is a perfect example of what snow does not like.  It creates the dreaded deep persistent layer.  We see this set up often in our climate, but I don't remember a season we saw it to this extent.  Needless, it persists.  I am purely speculating at this point, but this year I often toured and wondered if this type of seasonal variation is going to be the new normal and ponder if we are witnessing climate change first hand.  But I digress.    

All things aside February was a cold, wet, grey month with amazing powder conditions some days almost too deep to ski.  I believe we were pegged at considerable to high on the avalanche conditions for the entire month with a few avalanche warning days.  I am not sure I dug a pit, or investigated any new terrain the whole month.  The spatial variation combined with the deep instability had me feeling like I was playing Russian roulette, and the snowpack was so complex it seemed silly to try to dig pits and try to convince yourself that you had enough experience to safely assess the slope stability.  So, I just pulled back and accepted the fact that I would not be riding any avalanche terrain in February.   As a consequence, I rode less than 30-degree slopes in powder for over a month.  I regret to say that I did not snap a single photo as conditions were down right horrible for it hence the lack of photos and ultimately a drop in motivation.   It was hard to not feel like a I was holding back or not pushing it hard enough to go get into the type of terrain I love.  I continually questioned if I should be poking around looking for safe slopes.  I feel this is a heuristic trap that I battle with often being the type of person that prefers the challenge of riding steep committing terrain in the alpine as opposed to low angle powder, but never the less I decided to bow out, and I think I am okay with that decision.  

The following photos were from a wonderful day sneaking into some steep terrain during a tight window just as the snowpack stabilized somewhat and just before the insane weather of February showed up.  It was great to get into this terrain, and I find myself missing it and hoping for a few nice, stable spring days to enjoy the high mountains in relatively safe conditions. Here's to March!  Cheers.