some more info for the northern passes
i rode the red meadow loop yesterday https://bikepacking.com/routes/red-meadow-pass/
there were only a handful of snow patches near the top that had been driven through. there was 1 section of avy debris that someone had cut a path through- maybe 50-75 yards-not a big impediment. This was by far the least snow i have ever seen up there. The stahl peak snotel is down to 1.1 inches of WC or 4% of normal- the previous low was 10.30 inches in 94

Some intel on the early passes would be great. Specially, Whitefish Divide and Red Meadow.

Have a great ride. 

Those passes should be pretty much bare by now Stahl Peak snotel is at 15% or normal about half the amount of the previous minimum

With a return to 'normal' snow load in the northern parts, I'm curious of the amount of snow to expect on the passes in Canada and Montana.  Has anyone had eyes on the the trail lately?

If by normal you mean the drought years of the 90's then i guess so. Right now stahl peak (nearest snotel to Galton \, whitefish divide and red meadow is at 42% of normal and going quick. It just entered the lowest ever category in the last couple of days. In 2017 I camped at upper whitefish and rode to red meadow with only a bit of snow at the top- I would expect similar this year. Yesterday we rode to 5750 in the salish mountains due west a bit from red meadow and had to push maybe 75 feet.
The issue won't be the north but rather the central sections of the route

I'm amazed we didn't have more damage or impact locally, the sTahl peak snotel shows about 10.5 inches of additional SWE over 3+ days
Of course that's sitting there waiting to come downhill

Just a note that the section of the route north of whitefish lake is currently gated and marked closed- i talked to some bikers coming out this evening and it sounds totally passable, just some downed trees and mudslides. The landowner is MT DNRC and I don't believe that there will be any issues for Bikers going around any closures, Its always closed in early spring and was closed for months after a bad windstorm in 2020 but i have never heard of issues for human powered going around closures

My driveway is on the route and its currently 35 raining with stray flakes, this is about 6 miles north of whitefish. Its probably wet snow most of the way to polebridge from here.

5km/3m north of Elkford, its the turn off to koko claims

thanks

Rode up to the snow line today- about a mile and a half above the outlet of upper whitefish lake. What a surprisingly gorgeous day. Saw probably a dozen tour riders and maybe 10 day riders- more than i have ever seen on that road.
I'm a bit worried about the pineapple coming- there's a lot of snow available to melt.

where's round prairie?

Mike hall's record year was i believe largely snowless in the north and did not have Koko Claims (?). This year may have had the most snow to deal with to date on the designated route so I think what these folks are doing is quite impressive. One advantage to Sofiane's pacing is he will probably be south of the cold super wet storm we are about to get. Regardless it's still a long way to mexico

seems like my wife's phone didn't do too good of a job, looking like everyone else is a couple of hours from coming by here. I bet the Red meadow push is no fun

still looking pretty good a few miles before whitefish.

Since the weather is so crappy here i took a drive to see if i could catch up to sofiane on grave creek rd.and did about 10 miles above grave creek campground.
He was looking great. A person i knew had chatted with him and was told he did not take any sleeping gear. Clearly that strategy is working now but it would seem to be a gamble further on. I talked to a touring cyclist who had been over both red meadow and whitefish divide. Whitefish divide was apparently no big deal but there were a few big slide remains. He said red meadow was quite bad because its still about 6 ft of compacted snow and the heavy rains have left it as a slopfest. I seee by Sofiane's timings that Galton pass was hard, something we have not seen in years. When i originally scouted that route for the race I found it really held snow much longer on the east side?wigwam drainage.
Red meadow is always the worst since it gets so much more snow and heavy snow machine traffic all winter.

just got back from a ride towards upper whitefish lake from whitefish. What looked like continuous snow started about 2 miles above the olney crossover or 3 miles shy of upper whitefish lake/10+ miles shy of red meadow pass. This is extremely low for this date.  I'm sure there will be more melting in the next 2 weeks but forecasts are for consistently below normal temps. If this cycle keeps up the local snowtels may be at their all-time highest readings for early june- they are far off now. Its quite possible this will be the equivalent of 2008 and 2011. I was out 2 nights ago and was stopped by the sheriff looking for a cyclist who had left for polebridge in the am, without a detailed flight plan- they finally found him near the spot i turned around tonight at 11pm.
Short fat skis could be interesting.

For those interested it appears snow should be a minimal issue on the northern 2 passes. Rode up to upper whitefish lake last night and the snow it the trees was very much on the low side for the time of the year. 2 more hot days and no real precipitation should yield very minimal snow on Red meadow

Griz- thanks I've been wanting to check out the 9-mile valley

Inertiaman- keep an eye on fires and smoke- generally they have been more of an issue the farther south you go around here.

Griz, do you mind sharing a rough description? I had thought about using the 9-mile valley at one point

i'll take a look
in the bitterroot you can go on the east, there is also a railtrail ish section along the northern part.
Years ago i had planned a route using the magruder corridor that i got to by taking rock creek south then skalaho pass then south on some road to come out near Darby- i'll see if I can find it

just for grins i called the sandpoint ranger station and they said that that road is permanently de-commisioned, quote "obliterated" several years ago.
Bummer
There's nothing north that really connects well.

The only real good alternative then would be to exit the Yaak via Libby and the Fisher river road to perhaps silver butte pass and the vermilion rd. then west on blue slide cross the river through trout creek and back to the loop.This could be pretty nice Seems more in line withe the ethos of the route. But then i am the one responsible for the push up from the wigwam on the GDmbr. If you go through trout creek the cafe in the old RR station makes a bitchen burger

sorry inertia man- did not realize those washouts were so bad, I would think they would be fixed at some point since its the only road through that area- of course FS budgets are low these days. The Iron creek and lower lake roads creek are shown on the Kootenai forest map, MT atlas and OSM i have.