Sunday, February 2nd, 2003 Good morning, this is Scott Schmidt with your Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Advisory issued on Sunday, February 2nd, at 7:30 am. This advisory is sponsored by a Snowmobile Safety Grant from Montana Fish, Wildlife, And Parks, and does not apply to operating ski areas. AVALANCHE WARNING A Backcountry Avalanche Warning continues for the mountains around Cooke City and the Washburn Range in northern Yellowstone National Park. A significant amount of rain and snow has fallen in these mountains over the past several days. This precipitation has been deposited on an extremely weak snowpack. The avalanche danger continues to be HIGH on all slopes. Areas of unstable snow exist! Both natural and human triggered avalanches are likely. Avalanche terrain and runout zones should be avoided. WEATHER It is lucky that some of the moisture falling in Cooke City is snow otherwise those folks down there would be drowning. Another 1.1 inches of water has fallen in the mountains around Cooke City during past 24 hours, bringing the total precipitation to 5.7 inches of water in the past 7 days. If it were winter here in Montana this would amount to 6 feet of snow. The rest of our advisory area received 3-7 inches of snow, with the exception of the upper elevations at Big Sky where it sounds like it is gonna be a heck of a powder day! Winds were from the southwest yesterday, blowing 10-20 mph at the ridge-tops, and temperatures, which started out tropical, dropped into the upper teens last night. Today will bring scattered snow showers and cooler temperatures as the flow in the upper atmosphere switches to a more northerly direction. Ridge-top winds will blow 20-30 mph from the northwest, and temperatures will be seasonal with mountain highs in the 20s and overnight lows in the teens and single digits. SNOWPACK AND AVALANCHE DISCUSSION The Bridger Range The Bridger Bowl Ski Patrol continues to explosive- trigger sizeable avalanches that release on weak layers that formed in November. While this avalanche activity has been reduced to small, isolated pockets within the ski area, it speaks of a very persistent weakness that continues to plague the backcountry in the Bridger Range. The total snow accumulation at Bridger Bowl was around 6 inches yesterday, accompanied by light winds. This adds some weight to the snowpack but not enough to produce widespread natural activity. As a result I continue to rate todays avalanche danger CONSIDERABLE on all slopes steeper than 35 degrees and MODERATE on all other slopes. A considerable avalanche danger means there is a pretty dang good chance you could trigger an avalanche if you venture onto a steep slope so dont become complacent just because you are not seeing natural activity. The Gallatin and Madison Ranges, including the Lionhead area near West Yellowstone The Gallatin and Madison Ranges received anywhere from 3-7 inches of snow yesterday. This new snow has been deposited on a snowpack that exhibits all the classic signs of weakness. We continue to observe significant collapsing and cracking of the snowpack, combined with natural avalanche activity, and more snow load is not going to help the situation. The reported natural avalanche activity increases the further south you go even though the new snow load decreases. We got a report from some Forest Service Folks working in the Daily Creek area. They reported a number of natural slides that released during a short time period yesterday. The new snow that has fallen in the Madison and Gallatin Ranges is going to make for some good riding and sliding today but play it safe because the avalanche danger is HIGH all slopes steeper then 35 degrees. Lower angle avalanche slopes that have been wind- loaded also have a HIGH avalanche danger. On lower angle slopes that are non-wind loaded, I consider the avalanche danger to be CONSIDERABLE. The mountains around Cooke City and the Washburn Range Two snowmobilers were caught in an avalanche that happened east of Cooke City near the Montana/Wyoming state line. One person was only partially buried but was unable to dig himself out due to the heavy, wet nature of the avalanche debris. The second person was completely buried with the exception of his right hand, which was sticking out of the snow and resulted in his live recovery. As noted above, Cooke City has received a significant amount of precipitation during the past week. This has resulted in some impressive natural, and human- triggered, avalanches. The avalanche warning continues for the mountains around Cooke City and the Washburn Range, where the avalanche danger is HIGH on all slopes. ADDITIONAL AVALANCHE INFORMATION The second avalanche in 10 days has clamed a life on Teton Pass. A 29-year-old Jackson man was reported missing after he went snowboarding by himself in Olympic Bowl, south of the Pass. Search and Rescue personnel located the man in an avalanche the following day using avalanche transceivers. We also received news of another tragic avalanche in British Columbia, which resulted in the death of 7 high school kids on a school outing in Canadas Glacier National Park. We will update you as we get more information. I will issue the next advisory tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. Keep those observations coming! I need all the help I can get. If you get out into the backcountry I would appreciate your snowpack observations. You can leave a message at 587-6984 or email me at gnfac@avalanche.org. _________________________________________________________________