Sunday, March 9th, 2003 Good morning, this is Scott Schmidt with your Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Advisory issued on Sunday, March 9th, at 7:30 am. The Big Sky Ski Patrol, along with the Friends of the Avalanche Center, are the sponsors for todays advisory, which does not apply to the local ski areas. WEATHER Very little new snow fell in the mountains of Southwest Montana yesterday. The exception once again is Cooke City, which received an additional 4 6 inches, bringing the storm total in this area to around 45 inches in the past 7 days. Winds continue to be blustery, blowing 25 35 mph from the west, and mountain temperatures are warm, with overnight lows in the 20s. Another storm front is currently on the Montana/Idaho boarder and headed our way. We can expect mountain snow later today and into tonight with accumulations of 2 4 inches by morning. Westerly winds will remain gusty for most of today but should start to decrease later tonight. Todays high temperatures will be in the 20s and will remain warm with overnight lows in the upper teens. SNOWPACK AND AVALANCHE DISCUSSION The Bridger Range The main concern in the Bridger Range continues to be recently windloaded slopes. A group skiing just north of Bridger Bowl reported good stability on non-windloaded slopes and felt comfortable making turns in fairly steep terrain. This was also the case in the northern Bridgers, where a party spent the day skiing in the Flathead Pass area. They noted lots of recent windloading on the lee side of the ridge and experienced some snowpack collapsing in this area; however, their snowpit tests indicated good stability on non-windloaded slopes. For today, I continue to rate the avalanche danger CONSIDERABLE on all recently windloaded slopes in the Bridger Range. All non-windloaded slopes have a MODERATE avalanche danger. Gallatin, Madison, and Washburn Ranges, the Lionhead area near West Yellowstone, and the mountains around Cooke City I spent a great day up on Buck Creek Ridge yesterday, where the Gallatin Valley Snowmobile Association held a benefit poker run. Riding was great in nearly 2 feet of new snow; however strong winds along the ridge where creating near-whiteout conditions in the morning. This was also the case in Middle Basin, north of Big Sky, where a party reported cornices growing before their very eyes. Winds have also been strong in the mountains around Cooke City, where a group reported lots of windloading with sensitive slabs that where easy to trigger. Remember that most places had a very weak now surface before all this new snow fell, so youll want to investigate the stability of the interface between the snew and old snow before you commit to any steep terrain. Today, the avalanche danger remains HIGH on all recently windloaded slope in the Gallatin, Madison, and Washburn Ranges, the Lionhead area, and the Mountains around Cooke City. All other slopes have a CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger. For a description of the Avalanche Danger Scale click on: http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.ht I will issue the next advisory tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. If you get out into the backcountry Id sure appreciate it if youd let me know us know what your seeing. You can leave a message at 587-6984 or email us at gnfac@avalanche.org. EMAIL PROBLEMS Our address gnfac@avalanche.org has been rejecting some peoples emails. Were trying to work out the problem, but in the meantime, if you get a bounce back please send your message to all of us individually. We can be reached at dchabot@fs.fed.us, rjohnson@fs.fed.us and sschmidt@fs.fed.us. _________________________________________________________________