Another beautiful day to travel through the mountains and enjoy good stability. Continue to practice sound travel habits in avalanche terrain to insure against isolated surprises. Firm snow surfaces can pose a hazard if you slip and slide down a steep slope.
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Above 6500 ft.
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5000-6500 ft.
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3500-5000 ft.
Be alert for isolated avalanche hazards. These may include large cornice falls, shallow sluffs, or old wind slabs. Continue to be observant in your travels, carry avalanche rescue gear, travel with a partner, and ride one at a time in steep terrain.
A week of calm, dry weather has promoted a strong, stable snowpack in our backcountry. Last Saturday's wind and snow event left a mix of wind slabs and loose snow across the region. Natural sluffs and wind slabs released on each of the first few days after the storm, but avalanche activity has been quiet since Tuesday. Observers are reporting good stability except for shallow sluffing on very steep, northerly facing slopes. Old wind slabs have become unreactive, and there is little snow available for transport with last night's increased southwest winds. The snow surface on sunny aspects is worked over by a week of melt-freeze cycles.
All avalanche, snowpack, and weather evidence are pointing towards an opportune time to explore new terrain or check off a steeper objective today. Do so responsibly. Guard against isolated instabilities and be aware of slide-for-life conditions on terrain with frozen crusts or hard wind board. Be extra vigilant to prevent any type of incident or injury that could overburden the stressed health care system.
Now is a good time to pay attention to weak layers developing on the snow surface ahead of next week's stormier weather. Send us a quick observation: Did you see surface hoar? Did you see sugary, near surface facets, aka "recycled powder"? Where and in what type of terrain? This information will be very useful for our forecasters if the snow gods play nice in the upcoming weeks.
With the storm track well to our south, our region remains under relatively quiet weather this weekend. Tonight, a weak shortwave will refresh the snow surface with up to an inch or two of new snow. On either end of this disturbance, we can expect mostly sunny skies, mild temperatures, and tame wind speeds. A Pacific trough descends on the region next week bringing unsettled weather back to Montana.
| Saturday | Saturday Night | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Cover: | Mostly Clear | Mostly Cloudy | Partly Cloudy |
| Temperatures: | 32 to 37 deg. F. | 13 to 18 deg. F. | 31 to 36 deg. F. |
| Wind Direction: | West | Northwest | Southwest |
| Wind Speed: | 5 to 10, G20 | 5 to 10, G20 | 5 to 10, G25 |
| Snowfall: | 0" in. | 0 to 2" in. | 0" in. |
| Snow Line: | 3500' | 2500' | 2000' |
This forecast applies only to backcountry areas outside established ski area boundaries. The forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur. This forecast expires at midnight on the posted day unless otherwise noted. The information in this forecast is provided by the USDA Forest Service who is solely responsible for its content.
