Good Morning!
Snow is in the forecast this week with 6-12 inches falling in the mountains Monday into Tuesday. The highest snowfall amounts will occur in the Southern Madison and Southern Gallatin Ranges. Find current weather data on our weather stations in Cooke City and Lionhead, as well as Bridger Bowl’s weather stations, and SNOTEL sites throughout our advisory area.
Get Ready!
Snow is back in the forecast and so are avalanches. Will you be ready for the season when winter arrives in earnest or will you be throwing bikes and rafts out of the way to find your gear? While the latter is an oft employed organizational strategy, now is the perfect time to begin servicing your sleds, boards, and skis. It is equally important to REFRESH YOUR AVALANCHE BRAIN with an early season class and perform preseason checks on your AVALANCHE EQUIPMENT. In addition to the free and low-cost avalanche courses offered by the Friends of the GNFAC, find information about local avalanche courses offered by other providers on our education calendar. Remember if you are seeking high elevation, early season turns, snowpack stability and avalanches need to be on your radar.
Get Educated!
On November 4th, GNFAC Forecasters will speak at the 7th Annual MSU Snow and Avalanche Workshop. MSU will broadcast all the talks live from 6-9p.m.
Join the Avalanche Alliance on SnoWest Magazine’s Facebook page November 7th for a livestream interview with Doug, at 7pm Mountain time. Doug will share his views on keeping people safe in the backcountry.
Ian will be doing a Forecaster Chat about early season snowpack and lessons learned from avalanche accidents at 6:00 p.m. on November 11th, at Uphill Pursuits. More details available on the calendar.
Our popular Avalanche Fundamentals with Field Course returns this year with sessions in December and January. This program is perfect as a refresher or an introduction to avalanches. We are introducing an exciting new format this year with the four lectures pre-recorded to watch at your convenience, a live question and answer session, and a choice of a snowmobile or ski/ board based field day occurring the following three weekends.
Give Back!
Finally, the Friends of the Avalanche Center are hosting the Virtual Powder Blast fundraiser. Your donations support free and low-cost avalanche education, beacon checkers at trailheads, beacon parks, weather stations, and GNFAC programs! The Friends of GNFAC launched an online GoFundMe campaign. Please consider a donation, and we look forward to having an in-person event again in the future.
We are preparing for winter, scheduling avalanche classes, and setting up weather stations. If you have avalanche, snowpack or weather observations to share. Please submit them via our website, email (mtavalanche@gmail.com), phone (406-587-6984), or Instagram (#gnfacobs).
All the best,
Doug, Alex, Ian and Dave