After minimal snowfall across Montana most of the winter, the arrival of a heavy storm this week has led avalanche forecasters to warn recreators about “considerable” slide risks across several mountain ranges.
The Flathead Avalanche Center on Thursday issued a special avalanche warning that lasts through Sunday for several northwest ranges around Whitefish and Glacier National Park, anticipating that “dangerous avalanche conditions will persist through the weekend,” and that human-triggered avalanches are “likely.”
In particular, the Flathead forecasters cited the presence of weak layers in the snowpack “buried two to three feet deep” that “remain sensitive to the weight of a person or snowmachine.”
They also said recreators in northwest Montana have reported four accidents in the past week where skiers, snowboarders or snowmobilers were partially or fully buried in slides released from those weak layers.
“Slabs can be triggered from long distances away,” the Thursday bulletin said. “Avalanches may connect across terrain features like ridges, releasing multiple start zones at once. The layers — and the likelihood of triggering an avalanche — are most widespread on slopes facing west through north to east.”
Blase Reardon, the director of the Flathead Avalanche Center, said in a Thursday email to Montana Free Press that the long period of dry conditions this winter has contributed to the current avalanche risk.
“Long dry spells create persistent weak layers, often right at the snow surface. Once the snow returns and loads the weak layers [or] snow surface with a slab of new and drifted snow, the structure can be unstable,” Reardon said. “The weak layers are porous — lots of air space between large, angular crystals — and easily collapsed by the slabs, or the weight of a person on the slab.”
Reardon added that, in winters where snowfall is more steady, snowpacks tend to hold together better. “[P]ersistent weak layers don’t form as easily, or become so widespread,” he said.
Avalanche forecasters in the Missoula region have forecasted “considerable” risk at middle and upper elevations, while those in the Gallatin area have also noted “considerable” avalanche dangers at low, middle and high elevations around West Yellowstone and the southern parts of the Madison and Gallatin ranges.
Similar to the Flathead forecasters in the northwest part of the state, the Gallatin Avalanche Center pointed to a persistent weak layer two to three feet deep, dating back to January snowfall patterns. They also cited wind-loaded sections at higher elevations driven by high-speed gusts on Tuesday.
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Patrick Black with the West Central Montana Avalanche Center said it may have to scale back the frequency and geographic scope of its forecasts, which cover parts of the Lolo, Bitterroot, Nez Perce and Salmon-Challis national forests.
According to a condition summary from the Gallatin Avalanche Center, a snowmobiler was uninjured after being partially buried in a slide Tuesday in the West Yellowstone area. A separate field observation from the area this week reported that slides were triggered even though the snowpack had not been showing signs of instability, such as collapsing layers or visible cracking across a snowy surface.
“This can lead you to believe conditions are stable when they aren’t,” the Gallatin forecast said.
Until conditions improve, the Gallatin forecasters advised traveling on low-angle slopes and avoiding treacherous terrain.
“The best option for now is to ride slopes less than 30 degrees in steepness that aren’t steep enough to slide and avoid being under steeper slopes,” they wrote.
The heightened forecasts in Montana come days after a deadly avalanche in California made national headlines. As of Thursday, eight backcountry skiers from the group of fifteen had been reported dead, with another six surviving the slide. One additional skier was still missing and presumed dead, authorities said.
Montana has not had as many deadly avalanche encounters as other western states, such as Utah, Colorado and California, in recent years, according to summaries from the National Avalanche Center.
In 2024, a backcountry skier was buried and killed after triggering an avalanche in the Bitterroot Mountains near Lost Trail Pass. In 2021 and 2022, several snowmobilers were killed in avalanches near West Yellowstone and Cooke City.
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