avalanche

If you heard today's Avalanche Report on The Moose, you know that the current Avalanche Danger across southwest Montana is rated as Moderate, but that doesn't mean that slides can not easily be triggered in the backcountry. Mark Staples from the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center demonstrated this yesterday in Cooke City. Check it out.

A backcountry avalanche warning has been issued for the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center’s entire advisory area. Natural avalanche activity is likely on all slopes following heavy snowfall and strong winds that created widespread instability, according to the GNFAC...

With a controlled blast from Bridger Bowl Ski Patrol on January 5th, a large area south of the boundary line slid in a big way. The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center guys went up to check it out the next day. Here's what they found:

It's still early season but it's never too early to learn safety in the back country. We're very lucky here in Bozeman to be home of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center....and we're very lucky at The MOOSE to know these guys really well.

Doug Chabot of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center spent his Sunday up in Beehive Basin digging a large pit to see how things were looking, and they're looking good FOR NOW. See when that might change:

A 26 year old Bozeman man is at Deaconess Hospital after surviving being buried in an avalanche today in the Bridger Mountains south of Bridger Bowl.

A Swedish skier triggered an avalanche during a recent downhill event in Switzerland. He outruns it and throws in a backflip! Check out this sick video:

There is a FREE avalanche safety course TONIGHT at Bozeman's REI at 6:30pm specifically for women, taught by a woman. DETAILS HERE!

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.

The Associate Press reported that 38 year old Big Sky native, Matthew Jamie Pierre, was killed in an avalanche while snowboarding near the Gad Valley in Utah.

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.

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.