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                  GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST AVALANCHE ADVISORY
                            SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST, 1997

Good morning, this is Ron Johnson with your Gallatin National Forest Avalanche
Advisory issued on Saturday, February 1st, at 7:30 AM.  The next advisory will
be issued tomorrow morning.  Today's advisory is sponsored by Gallatin County
Search and Rescue, which is supported by the taxpayers of Gallatin County.
These advisories do not apply to the operating ski areas. 

The latest round of precipitation dropped about 8-12 inches of new snow in the
southern mountains and 2-5 inches in the northern mountains.  Yesterday's
freezing levels were around 6-7000 feet and have dropped to about 5000 feet
this morning.  Southwest Montana is under the influence of a moist westerly
flow aloft which should keep our skies mostly cloudy.  We should receive
another 1-3 inches of new snow during the next 24 hours, with most of the
precipitation falling this morning.  Ridgetop winds will be mostly from the
west at 10-25 mph.  Mountain temperatures will be a few degrees cooler than
what they have been, with today's temperatures expected to be mainly in the
20's.

During the past couple of days I've been checking out conditions in the
southern Madison Range and the Lionhead area, near West Yellowstone.  While I
didn't notice any obvious signs of snowpack instability, such as cracking or
collapsing of the snowpack; results from stability tests in snowpits did
indicate that the snowpack has a weak layer that still makes me nervous.  The
weak layer is about 1-2 feet below the snow surface and consists of small
grains of faceted snow.  Karl and I noticed similar conditions in the mountains
around Cooke City, on Monday and Tuesday.  With the addition of another 8-12
inches of dense snow, I think that the avalanche danger in the southern
mountains has increased.  FOR TODAY, FOR THE WASHBURN AND SOUTHERN MADISON AND
GALLATIN RANGES (SOUTH OF ABOUT BIG SKY), THE MOUNTAINS AROUND COOKE CITY AND
THE LIONHEAD AREA, I CONSIDER THE AVALANCHE DANGER TO BE MODERATE-TO-HIGH ON
ALL SLOPES STEEPER THAN 35 DEGREES AND MODERATE ON ALL SLOPES STEEPER THAN
ABOUT 30 DEGREES. 

Less new snow has fallen in the northern mountains and temperatures have been
warmer than in the southern mountains.  This means that the weak layer within
the snowpack hasn't had as much of a load added to it and it has had an
opportunity to become stronger.  FOR THE BRIDGER, NORTHERN GALLATIN AND
NORTHERN MADISON RANGES I WOULD CALL THE AVALANCHE DANGER MODERATE ON SLOPES
WITH RECENT WIND DEPOSITS THAT ARE STEEPER THAN 35 DEGREES AND GENERALLY LOW
ELSEWHERE.

The skiing and snowmobiling conditions in the southern part of our area has
been very good.  Conditions in the northern mountains haven't been all that
great, mainly due to the warm temperatures.  If you decide to ride or
slide.......Please remember to use caution when travelling in the backcountry,
because even during periods of low or moderate avalanche danger, avalanches are
possible.

The next advisory will be issued tomorrow morning.  If you have any recent
snowpack or avalanche information to pass on, please give us a call at
587-6984, or log on to the internet and e-mail us from our home page.  This
advisory is also available on a recorded message at 587-6981 in Bozeman,
838-2341 in Cooke City, and 646-7912 in West Yellowstone.  Advisories are
available on the Internet at http://www.csac.org (where you can also subscribe
the advisories by e-mail).  You can also find our advisories and other useful
information at our web page at http://www.avalanche.org/~gnfac.
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