Good morning and happy Easter. This is Eric Knoff with the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Advisory issued on Sunday, April 5, at 7:30 a.m. Northern Lights Trading Company and Bozeman Ski Guide sponsor today’s advisory. This advisory does not apply to operating ski areas.
Overnight the Bridger Range picked up 2-3 inches of new snow. The rest of the advisory area picked up a trace to one inch. This morning mountain temperatures are in the upper teens to mid-20s F and winds are light out of the S-SE. Today, a moist southwest flow will keep conditions unsettled and the mountains could pick up an additional 1-2 inches by the end of the day. Temperatures will gradually warm into the upper 20s to mid-30s F and winds will remain light out S-SW. Unsettled weather will continue over the next 24 hours. The mountains could receive another 2-4 inches of snow tonight through tomorrow.
Bridger Range Gallatin Range Madison Range
Lionhead area near West Yellowstone Cooke City
Highly variable snow conditions exist in the backcounty. Soft, dry snow can still be found on upper elevation, north facing slopes. This dry snow is well bonded to the hard underlying ice crust (photo). On all other aspects aside from due north, rather unpleasant-crusty conditions can be found. The one benefit to marginal ridging conditions is good stability.
Today, the only real avalanche problem will be small, isolated wind slabs formed by SW winds. This problem will be confined to upper elevation terrain below the ridgelines. With a good freeze overnight and cool-cloudy conditions this afternoon, there should be no wet snow avalanche problems.
Today, avalanche conditions are generally safe and the avalanche danger is LOW.
I 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.
RECALL OF ORTOVOX S1+ AVALANCHE TRANSCEIVERS
All necessary information about the recall can be found at: www.ortovox.com/recall-s1plus.
The last advisory of the season will be Sunday, April 12.