WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21 Good afternoon. This is Doug Chabot from the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center with an early season Avalanche Information Bulletin. Today is Wednesday, November 21stat 5 p.m. and this information will be updated when conditions change. Both Big Sky and Moonlight Basin Ski Areas are closed for uphill travel. Bridger Bowl permits hiking or skinning uphill, but backcountry conditions exist within their boundary. MOUNTAIN WEATHER The northern mountains picked up 2-3 inches of new snow since yesterday morning. This brings the storm totals to 12-14 above 8,000 feet and 20-24 outside Cooke City. Over the next few days a drier northwest flow will dominate the skies. Other than a few flurries Im not expecting much. Ridgetop winds will continue to be west to northwest at 15-30 mph and nighttime temperatures dip into the single digits and reach the low 20s during the day. By the weekend high pressure will bring slightly warmer temperatures and sunny skies. However, it will still be cold enough to keep the snow powdery and fatten up the ice climbs for next weeks slaughter at the Ice Festival! The next possible storm could be Tuesday or Wednesday, so stay tuned. SNOWPACK AND AVALANCHE DISCUSSION The recent snows lured skiers and snowmobilers into the backcountry and many of them called and wrote us with their observations. The consensus is that the snow stability is generally looking good. Warm weather the past few weeks consolidated the snow at the higher elevations into a stable, dense mass. Other than a few sluffs and small, natural, soft slab avalanches there hasnt been much activity. The Big Sky Ski Patrol did avalanche control on a snowpack still similar to the backcountry and got minimal results. In the Bridger Range folks are reporting good skiing both to the north and south of Bridger Bowl on 30+ inches of snow. Scott Schmidt dug a few snowpits off the ridgetop and found that it was difficult to propagate a stability tests. I talked with someone who skied off the top of Saddle Peak and they had a great run in the fresh powder. The winds have started to increase out of the west and are scouring a few slopes and loading some others. Near the ridgetops be careful on anything wind-loaded since its possible to trigger a slide on these denser slabs. The mountains outside of Cooke City have close to a 50 inch base. I got a report of great snowmobiling in 20 inches of powder above treeline. No too bad for Thanksgiving! Other than a few sluffs, there wasnt any avalanche activity. We are not currently issuing avalanche danger ratings since we have not had enough field days to get a handle on the snow stability. But observations so far are looking goodno significant avalanche activity, a solid base of snow and good powder on top of it all. DUMB THANKSGIVING JOKE Why does a pilgrim's pants always fall down? Because they wear their belt buckle on their hat.