dougchabot

Heads up in the backcountry.  It's bad out there.

Folks are triggering avalanches from low angled terrain which are propagating far and wide.  Slopes that held early season snow are especially dangerous since the old snow became weak, faceted and sugary.  With 1-2 feet of new snow this week it’s difficult to tell which slope is unstable and which is not.

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Winter and spring are in full battle mode.  In the valleys spring has the upper hand and any snow that falls is short lived.  Life is being breathed into dormant tulips in my front yard.  In the mountains, winter still reigns king, although his days are numbered

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Just when I started to think about climbing and biking, the snow starts to fall.  Again.  Although town is dry and my tulips are poking out of the ground, it's full blown winter in the mountains.  

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Yesterday, winter officially ended with the Equinox.  Saying good-bye to an old, reliable friend is difficult, but spring seems full of energy and ready to play. It started snowing early this morning and at 6 a.m six inches of wet, dense snow has fallen in the mountains.  

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Don't let the rain in the valleys fool you--there's snow in the mountains.  A few inches around Bozeman and a few feet around West Yellostone and Cooke City.

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From today's advisory:

Yesterday, Mark, Eric, Karl and I joined folks from Bridger Bowl to investigate the avalanche that killed a snowboarder on the west side of the range two days ago.  Although the slide was only 50 feet wide, it was a three foot

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The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center is issuing a Backcountry Avalanche Warning for the Bridger and northern Gallatin Ranges as well as the mountains outside Cooke City. Heavy snowfall since Saturday has been deposited on a weak snowpack.  Strong winds at all elevations have loaded slopes further.  The avalanche danger is rated HIGH on all slopes.

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Close to two feet of snow has fallen in the mountains since Saturday.  The interface between the old and new snow has spiked the avalanche danger.  We found unstable snow on Mt. Blackmore (video) and skiers

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Chicago got pummeled with 20 inches of snow, and they're pretty bummed about it.   Don't they realize how cool that is?  Bozeman's week long drought feels like eternity, but I'm hoping our fortunes are about to change

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The storms have finally ended.  It snowed 13 days in a row in our advisory area, a pretty sweet system that dropped over 6 feet of snow outside Cooke City.  I was there last Sunday and had the throttle pinned to get anywhere.  The snowpack is getting stronger by the day.  With high pressure settling over Montana bringing sunny skies the backcountry riding and skiing will be great.

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Yesterday, Eric, Randy Elliott (the General Manager of Bridger Bowl) and I trekked out to investigate Sunday’s avalanche below the south summit of Saddle Peak named Argentina Bowl (video) (many photos).  Thi

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In the avalanche world we know that more snow equals more avalanches.  It's a no brainer.  But during times like these of high pressure, the snowpack starts to get funky.  Instead of getting stronger it gets weaker

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