GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST AVALANCHE ADVISORY
                            FRIDAY, MARCH 8TH, 1996

Good morning, this is Karl Birkeland with your Gallatin National Forest
Avalanche Advisory for Friday, March 8th, issued at 7:30 am.  The next advisory
will be issued tomorrow morning.  Today's advisory is sponsored by Patagonia.
This advisory does not apply to the local ski areas.

I woke up to a dusting of snow to brush off my car this morning.  A small
weather disturbance pushed through last night and dropped 3 inches of light
snow in the Bridgers and 1 to 2 inches in the rest of our area.  As high
pressure moves in by late morning, the moisture will be moving out, though not
before some mountain locations pick up another inch of snow.  The good news for
those of you hoping for spring is that the cold air has been pushed to the
east.  Mountain temperatures are currently near 20 and should rise to the upper
20's by the end of the day.  Winds today will be 10 to 20 mph out of the west
and northwest.  Don't worry, temperatures won't stay "seasonable" for long.  By
this weekend we will get hot, with mountain temperatures 10 to 15 degrees
warmer than today by Sunday. 

I haven't heard any reports of avalanches or unstable snowpack for several days
now.  The exception - doesn't this always seem to be the case? - are windloaded
areas.  Two days ago the Big Sky Ski Patrol reported numerous avalanches
consisting of wind blown snow.  I think that there are probably still a few of
those pesky wind slabs out there that could take you for a ride, so you'll want
to avoid for those smooth pillows of recently deposited wind drifted snow.

FOR TODAY FOR THE SOUTHERN GALLATIN, SOUTHERN MADISON, AND WASHBURN RANGES, THE
LIONHEAD AREA, AND THE MOUNTAINS AROUND COOKE CITY I WOULD CALL THE SNOWPACK
INSTABILITY MOSTLY MODERATE ON ALL SLOPES STEEPER THAN 35 DEGREES WITH RECENT
DEPOSITS OF WIND DRIFTED SNOW.  GENTLER SLOPES AND SLOPES UNAFFECTED BY THE
WIND WILL HAVE A LOW INSTABILITY.

Areas farther to the north had less new snow from our most recent storm, and
those areas of unstable wind deposits will be more widespread than the southern
mountains.  FOR THE BRIDGER, NORTHERN GALLATIN AND NORTHERN MADISON RANGES, I'D
CALL THE INSTABILITY MODERATE ON ALL SLOPES STEEPER THAN 35 DEGREES WITH RECENT
WIND DEPOSITS, WHILE GENTLER SLOPES AND THOSE UNAFFECTED BY THE WIND WILL HAVE
A MOSTLY LOW INSTABILITY.

Remember that a low instability is not the same as no instability.  Avalanches
are still possible even when the instability is low or moderate, and you have
to use caution.

It may not have felt like it for the last couple bone-chilling days, but we are
heading into spring.  This means that the sun will be a lot higher in the sky
and it won't take much sun to turn the snow into mush over the next couple days
as our temperatures warm.  So, keep your eyes on the sky and if the sun pops
out you'll want to monitor the mushiness of the slopes that face the sun.  Mush
deeper than your boot tops is your indicator to head to shadier slopes.

Advisories are issued every day of the week except on Tuesdays.  I will issue
the next advisory tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM.  If you have any recent snowpack
or avalanche information to pass on, please give us a call at 587-6984.  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.