18-19

<p><u>The Bridger, Madison, Gallatin Ranges, and mountains around Cooke City</u></p>

<p>Minimal&nbsp;snow and wind the past few days has helped stability. On Wednesday, my partner and I skied around Beehive Basin and found generally stable conditions <strong><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/photos">photo</a></strong&gt;. This is consistent with other observations from the area. Without widespread persistent weak layers <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF0zmpxFeM8&amp;t=0s&amp;list=PLXu5151n…;, instabilities remain isolated to upper elevation&nbsp;slopes previously loaded by west-southwest winds.</p>

<p>Pockets of wind drifted snow will be stubborn and hard to move today, but still need to&nbsp;be assessed carefully. Watch for this problem below upper elevation ridgelines and cross loaded terrain features. As demonstrated by the skier triggered avalanche on Monday, it only takes a small slide to create a potentially dangerous situation <u><strong><a href="https://youtu.be/q1aqN4N6Gww">video</a></strong></u>.</p&gt;

<p>Although isolated areas of instability still exist, the snowpack is generally stable and the avalanche danger is rated <strong>LOW</strong>.</p>

<p>The snowpack in the Lionhead area outside West Yellowstone is shallow and weak. &nbsp;On Monday, Alex found a 2’ deep snowpack consisting of sugary facets capped by 6” of new snow (<u><strong><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/images/18/shallow-weak-snowpack-lionhead">p…;). His <u><strong><a href="https://youtu.be/hl5lygIF7s4">video</a></strong></u><strong&gt; </strong>shows the crumbly nature of the facets and their inability to support much weight. Without new snow and wind the past few days, stability in this area has improved. However, a poor snowpack structure continues to raise red flags. Before committing to steep terrain, assess the snowpack carefully and avoid slopes where dense wind-blown snow rests over weak facets near the ground.</p>

<p>Today, human triggered avalanches are possible on wind loaded slopes which have a <strong>MODERATE </strong>avalanche danger. Non-wind loaded slopes have a <strong>LOW</strong> avalanche danger.</p>