Good morning. This is Doug Chabot with the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Advisory issued on Wednesday, April 8, at 7:30 a.m. A Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks RTP Grant sponsors today’s advisory. This advisory does not apply to operating ski areas.
In the last 24 hours an inch of snow fell in the southern Madison Range and around West Yellowstone while everywhere else remained dry. Light winds from the south to southwest are blowing at 5-15 mph under mostly clear skies with temperatures near 20F. Today will be partly cloudy with mountain temperatures reaching the low 40s. No new snow is expected for the next few days.
Bridger Range Gallatin Range Madison Range Lionhead area near West Yellowstone Cooke City
Since Saturday evening a series of storms dropped 10-13 inches in the mountains (over an inch of SWE) with gusty winds out of the west. Wind-loading is our main avalanche concern since the snow fell onto a firm ice crust and a few slopes avalanched. On Monday, Eric and his partners found over a foot of new snow sticking firmly to the crust but did not trust the stability on wind-loaded slopes (video). Around Cooke City, a skier noted a natural avalanche near the ridgeline (photo) and another party triggered a slide in a steep gully (photo), both wind-loaded. Yesterday, also outside Cooke City, a skier backed off an exposed, high-alpine line when cracks shot out from his skis as he entered the slope to test it. He was belayed and hiked out.
Elsewhere around Cooke City and also in the southern Madison Range skiers dropped big lines on stable snow: no cracks or avalanche activity was seen. In general, we are trending toward stability with warm, above freezing, daytime temperatures helping the process. Today will be harder to trigger avalanches than yesterday, but steep wind-loaded slopes demand extra caution as the shooting cracks indicated. For today, the avalanche danger is MODERATE on wind-loaded slopes steeper than 35 degrees and LOW everywhere else.
Mark will issue the next advisory tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. If you have any snowpack or avalanche observations drop us a line at mtavalanche@gmail.com or call us at 587-6984.
The last advisory of the season will be on Sunday, so if history is any guide expect an epic dump on Monday.