20-21

<p>Wind has been blowing strong out of the west and will continue this weekend. Up to 4” of snow fell around Bozeman and Big Sky which will be drifted into wind slabs at all elevations. On Thursday skiers triggered a 50 foot wide and 6” deep wind slab near Fairy Lake in the Bridger Range (<a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/images/20/wind-slab-n-bridgers"><strong><u>…;). Last night’s snow and wind will create more opportunities to trigger avalanches. Although these may be thin and small, don’t be fooled, they can beat you up on the rocks, sweep you off your feet and bury you.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The southern ranges including the mountains around West Yellowstone and Cooke City got a foot of snow (1” <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/or/snow/?cid=nrcs142p2… water equivalent</u></a>) with strong west wind. The snow fell on dirt around West Yellowstone while Cooke City has over 40” above 9,000’ (<a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/weather/stations/fisher-creek"><u>Fisher Creek Snotel</u></a>). Slabs of wind blown snow will be widespread and a couple feet thick. I expect a skier or sledder could easily trigger these slopes this weekend. Shooting cracks, collapses and recent avalanche activity, no matter how small, are signs of avalanche danger. Heed the obvious and be extra careful crossing steep, snow covered slopes no matter if you are on foot, skis or snowmobile.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Early season sliding and riding has a unique set of issues: colliding with thinly buried obstacles, being rusty in evaluating snow stability, and not maintaining or being practiced with our rescue gear. I recommend watching Dave’s new 3-minute video where he demonstrates how to do a quick beacon drill (<a href="https://youtu.be/p1xuaaSq4YU"><strong><u>video</u></strong></a&gt;). If you are hungry for more you can watch my 1-hour lecture on Early Season conditions <a href="https://youtu.be/vyKdBBzd5IE"><strong><u>here</u></strong></a>.</p&gt;

<p>Every day we will update the <a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/weather/wx-avalanche-log"><strong><u>weather log</u></strong></a>, <a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/photos"><strong><u>photos page</u></strong></a> and <a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/avalanche-activity"><strong><u>avalanche activity list</u></strong></a>.&nbsp; We will continue issuing early season updates and transition to daily avalanche forecasts when we get more snow. If you have avalanche, snowpack or weather observations to share, please submit them via our <a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/node/add/snow_observation"><strong><u>websi…;, email (<a href="mailto:mtavalanche@gmail.com"><strong><u>mtavalanche@gmail.com</u></str…;), phone (406-587-6984), or Instagram (#gnfacobs).</p>