GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST — The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center has issued an avalanche warning for Island Park, Idaho, for the second day in a row, along with assigning high avalanche danger to Southern Madison, Southern Gallatin, Lionhead Range and Cooke City regions in Montana.
“We issued an Avalanche Warning for the second day in a row in Island Park because it keeps snowing,” the avalanche warning reads. “Although the daily amounts are measured in inches, they add up. Since Saturday, 1.4 inches of snow water equivalent fell, measuring over a foot of snow. Avalanches will be easily triggered and getting caught could be deadly, especially if you are trapped in a gully with snow piling on top of you. Our advice is simple: don’t get into or underneath any avalanche terrain today. Avalanches can be triggered from hundreds of feet away. The avalanche danger is rated HIGH on all slopes.”
In the Montana recreation areas surrounding Yellowstone, avalanche danger ranges from considerable to high, as well.
“Around Cooke City and West Yellowstone: Incremental loading, an inch or two every day, is also not typically a problem, except this year,” the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center said. “Collapsing, cracking and triggering slides from far away is as likely today as it was yesterday. The bottom two feet of the snowpack is garbage: sugary facets and a couple layers of surface hoar.”
Snowpack woes are being felt all over the region. This year’s historically dicey conditions are leading to increased avalanche dangers. When traveling in the backcountry, exercise serious caution.
