Bridger Range

The snowpack is mostly stable and avalanches are unlikely. If you are in steep terrain where a small slide could push you into rocks, trees, or over a cliff, keep an eye out for small wet loose slides, dry loose “facet-sluffs”, or old drifts.

Today is a transition from recent warm and sunny, spring-like weather to wintery, cold and snowy conditions. 

Temperatures will be cooler than the last couple days with more cloud cover and increasing wind. This will allow the snowpack to stay mostly frozen and makes wet snow avalanches unlikely. Less than a dusting of new snow is expected during the day today which will not contribute to dry snow avalanche danger. Today the snowpack is generally stable, avalanches are unlikely, and the avalanche danger is LOW throughout the forecast area.

While the snowpack is mostly stable, there are a few isolated hazards to keep an eye out for, especially if you are in steep terrain where a small slide could push you into rocks, trees, or over a cliff. If the sun pokes out and softens the snow surface, small wet loose slides could be triggered near rocky outcrops on sunny slopes (examples of these are recent slides in Beehive and Cooke). These will probably be small, and can be avoided if you stay on slopes that have a frozen snow surface or less than a couple inches of soft wet snow. On high, shady slopes that have stayed colder, there might be an isolated unstable drift of snow that formed last week. Steer around drifts in high consequence terrain.

On most shady slopes the snow surface has faceted into a thick layer of sugary, weak snow, and on sunny slopes, this weak snow exists underneath icy crusts that recently formed (Beehive video, Island Park video, Saddle Peak video). A person could trigger dry loose “facet-sluffs” of this sugary snow on shady, steep slopes.

TOMORROW will be a different story. Avalanche danger will increase when snow and wind form slabs of new snow on top of the weak, sugary facets and firm crusts, and the chances of triggering an avalanche will quickly increase. If you have been taking advantage of recent sunshine and good stability to travel through avalanche terrain, after today plan to limit your terrain choices to less consequential or lower angle terrain.

King and Queen of The Ridge Fund-Raiser

Thank you to all the hikers who showed up for King and Queen of the Ridge yesterday! The event was a success with $23,458 raised. A huge thanks to everyone who raised money for the Friends of GNFAC. 

The top fund-raisers were Ron June, Dash Rodman, Matt Pellman, Bryce Johnson, and Tripp Lewton. The top team fund-rasiers were Science Saves Live, Cooke City Exxon, Pink Super Senders, BSF Skimo and Thunder Thighs.  Thank you! (Fundraiser Results). The top hikers were Natalie McCormick with 21 hikes and Ezra Merrill-Triplett with 30 hikes (Event Results).