Good morning, this is Scott Schmidt with your Gallatin National Forest
Avalanche Advisory issued on Sunday, February 4th, at 7:30 am.  This
advisory is brought to you in part by the Friends of the Avalanche Center
in cooperation with RED, a provider of backcountry snowboard gear.  This
advisory doesn't apply to operating ski areas.

                CURRENT CONDITIONS AND WEATHER DISCUSSION:

No new snow over night but lots of wind.  Ridge-top winds have been
westerly and blowing a steady at 20 ? 30 mph throughout our advisory
region.  These winds will continue through the morning as a nice looking
storm makes its way into our area.  This storm has the potential to provide
us with some much-needed moisture.  Snow showers should start this
afternoon with 4 ? 6 inches of accumulation by morning.  The computer
models show the center of this storm moving just to the north of our area.
If the models are off by just a tiny little bit we might be in for the big
dump.  Oh please dear Snow God, please let the computer be wrong.
Ridge-top winds will remain gusty from the northwest through the day and
mountain high temperatures will reach the low 20's.

                    SNOWPACK AND AVALANCHE DISCUSSION:

The Gallatin,  Madison and Washburn Ranges, the Lionhead area near West
Yellowstone, and the mountains around Cooke City:

I got a bunch of great observations from yesterday.  The Yellowstone Club
and Big Sky snow safety folks reported that their avalanche control work
produced minimal results even though the wind blew like stink and they had
7 inches of new snow to transport.  Both outfits though this was just a
little weird.  An excellent report from Bear Basin indicated that there was
some evidence of instability lower down off the ridgeline.  This party
reported weaker snow crystals, sitting on an ice crust, and covered by 18
inches of snow from this past week's storms.  They reported several good
snowpack collapses, accompanied by a woophing sound and some snowpack
cracking.  A second party that spent the day in this same area reported
seeing the remains of a recent skier triggered avalanche.  This was on a
west-facing slope dropping back into Beehive Basin that had been
cross-loaded by the recent winds.  It appeared that the second person - in
the group of two - triggered the slide and was caught but spit of the
avalanche.  Previous to this last week we experienced a period of high
pressure.  This resulted in a layer of weak snow on the surface of the
snowpack known as surface hoar and near-surface facets.  Our concern in the
southern areas is that this weak layer of snow has been buried by 10 - 18
inches of fairly dense snow over the past 4 days, and this type of weak
layer is known to remain unstable for a long period of time.  In areas
where this layer has been buried by wind deposited snow, transported by the
resent high winds, I feel it is likely you could trigger an avalanche, and
for today, I consider the avalanche danger to be CONSIDERABLE on all
recently wind loaded slopes steeper then 35 degrees and MODERATE elsewhere
in these southern areas.

The Bridger Range

I also got great observations from up and down the Bridger range.  A group
who ventured into the northern Bridger's reported good skiing and stable
snow conditions.  I spent the last four days in the central Bridger's and
found similar conditions.  Wind transported snow that was sensitive to the
weight of a skier on Thursday, bonded with the older snow surface and by
Friday these wind slabs would support my weight although they continued to
pull out nicely with explosives.  A report from the southern Bridger's
indicates that things aren't all roses in this range.  This group reported
a thin snowpack that continues to be weak and has been loaded by lots of
wind.  They experienced numerous snowpack collapses accompanied by cracks
and decided to ski some lower angle slopes.  For the most part, the
snowpack in the Bridger's appears to be stable but there are still some
steeper slopes that might avalanche and, for today I consider the avalanche
danger to be MODERATE on recently wind loaded slopes steeper then 35
degrees and LOW elsewhere.

                          ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The next advisory will be issued tomorrow morning. 

END