Today...Breezy. Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of snow in the morning...then chance of snow in the afternoon. Highs 31°F to 37°F. Southwest winds 15 to 20 mph in the late morning and afternoon. Chance of snow 40 percent.

Tonight...Breezy. Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Lows 18°F to 24°F. Southwest winds 15 to 20 mph.

Thursday...Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Highs 27°F to 33°F. Southwest winds around 15 mph in the morning.

Thursday Night...Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Lows 13°F to 19°F.

Friday...Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Highs 26°F to 32°F. West winds around 15 mph in the afternoon.

Friday Night...Cloudy. Occasional flurries in the evening...then slight chance of snow after midnight. Lows 7°F to 13°F. Chance of snow 20 percent.

Saturday...Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Highs 26°F to 32°F.

Saturday Night...Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Lows 12°F to 18°F.

Sunday...Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Highs 27°F to 33°F.

Sunday Night...Cloudy with a 40 percent chance of snow. Lows 9°F to 15°F.

Monday...Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Highs 24°F to 30°F.

Monday Night...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of snow. Lows 4°F to 10°F.

Tuesday...Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow. Highs 20°F to 26°F.

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Mountain Weather

Yesterday was a snow free day. West winds decreased and are currently averaging 15-20 mph with gusts to 35 mph. Under partly cloudy skies the temperature dropped last night to 20°F from yesterday's high near 30°F. Today will begin with mostly sunny skies, yet clouds will increase. Temperatures will climb to near freezing as winds remain west to southwest at 20 mph. Late tonight a spit of snow will drop a trace to one inch in the northern mountains and 1 to 2 inches in the south.

Snowpack and Avalanche Discussion:

The Bridger, Madison and Gallatin Ranges, the Lionhead area near West Yellowstone, the mountains around Cooke City and the Washburn Range:

On Monday, winds gusted to 60 plus mph scouring, sculpting and drifting. The high velocity winds did a better job of stripping than loading slopes. Yesterday the speeds calmed and temperatures warmed to near freezing which helped cement many of these newly formed slabs in place. The Big Sky Ski Patrol tried releasing a few hard slabs without luck. Nevertheless, strong mid-mountain winds from the south loaded many gullies and edges of paths, which could still be triggered. The avalanche fatality in Truman Gulch two weeks ago was on the heels of a similar wind event that created a deep hard slab on the edge of a gully.

My travel advice today is simple: be careful getting onto hard slabs at the ridgelines or in gullies. This includes cornices. These have grown substantially in the past weeks making it harder to identify where they may break. It's hard to believe that a piece of snow weighing thousands of pounds would break under the weight of a 150 pound person, but they do. Besides risking injury (and soiling your pants) if you surf one down, they can also trigger avalanches. Outside Cooke City on Sunday, I saw two slides that released from natural cornice drops.

The snowpack throughout our advisory area is lacking widespread weak layers. There are still a few isolated areas where unstable snow could exist, but these are few and far between. On Sunday a snowboarder triggered a slide on a small, steep, east-facing slope. Faceted grains on an ice crust were the culprit, but this layering seemed unique to this spot (snowpit profile) and I could not find it elsewhere.

For today, the Avalanche Danger is rated MODERATE on all recently wind-loaded slopes. Slopes spared a wind-load will have a LOW Avalanche Danger. And remember, a low danger does not mean NO danger.

PHOTOS, SNOWPITS, VIDEO and SURVEY RESULTS

1. We've recently uploaded more photos and snowpits to our web site, more than what are linked in the advisory.

2. We're creating a series of "How To…" stability test videos. So far we've got clips on performing a CT and ECT. There are located under Stability Tests on the Resources page.

3. The results from our survey are posted online. Thanks to all who participated. You can check out the results at http://bit.ly/fpLuSi.

In response to our survey we added a new page to the website with images of our snowpit profiles. This page is under the Resources/Other Info tab at http://fsavalanche.org/Encyclopedia/snowpit.htm

Information provided by Doug Chabot, Mark Staples, and Eric Knoff from the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center. For Photos and Videos, please visit the Avalanche Centers Website!

If you have any snowpack or avalanche observations, drop them a line at mtavalanche@gmail.com or call: 406-587-6984.

For detailed Avalanche Terms utilized here, please see the Avalanche Glossary.

Upcoming Events

SATURDAY - Pinhead Classic

The 30th Annual Pinhead Classic on is Saturday, March 5th. "Gangsters and Flappers" is this year's costume theme, so come dressed up to race, socialize and wind great prizes. Registration is $30 but get you all sorts of cool stuff. All proceeds benefit the Friends of the Avalanche Center. Check out the website http://pinheadclassic.com for details.