Cooke City

Persistent Slab avalanches remain possible, breaking beneath this week’s snow. A slide triggered yesterday in Goose Creek is a great example of this concern (video). Don’t get lulled into complacency by tracks on steep slopes. If you’re going to get onto steep slopes, think about the potential consequences of a slide and make sure you have a partner ready to respond if something goes wrong.

Across the forecast area, avalanches remain possible in places where you have more than about a foot of recent snow sitting on top of the weak layers that formed during the January dry spell. 

Near Cooke City, enough snow fell recently that this setup exists even without wind loading and you can trigger Persistent Slab avalanches. A slide triggered yesterday near Goose Creek that broke a foot or two deep, 40 ft wide and ran 100 vertical ft is the perfect example of the sort of slide you could trigger today (video). While there are more and more tracks on steep slopes, don’t get lulled into complacency and let your guard down (video). If you’re going to get onto steep slopes, pick smaller slopes with clean runouts free of trees, rocks, or other terrain traps and make sure you have all the right gear (beacon, shovel, and probe) and a partner watching and ready to respond. With enough pockets remaining that could still avalanche, the avalanche danger is MODERATE.

In the Gallatin, Madison and Bridger Ranges, the new snow is a little thinner, and you’ll likely only find the problematic slab-weak layer combination on windloaded shady slopes. You could still trigger a Wind Slab avalanche in a wind-drifted spot (likely up near a ridgeline) on a shady slope where the weak snow from January isn’t capped by a substantial crust from the last warm up. Either steer clear of those drifts or dig down and test the weak layers before committing to steep slopes. We did get reports of widespread collapsing on non-windloaded slopes earlier in the week in the southern Madison Range (Bacon Rind, Tele meadows), so don’t entirely write off slopes without wind drifting. The avalanche danger is MODERATE at upper elevations.

In the Lionhead and Island Park areas, there was even less recent snowfall and you’re unlikely to find the troublesome slab-weak layer combination. The light dusting of new snow today won’t create any new hazard. Keep your eye out for isolated areas with deeper drifts. Avalanches are unlikely and the avalanche danger is LOW.