At 5 a.m. there is 1” of new snow in Hyalite, 3-4” in Big Sky to Lionhead, and 1” in Cooke City. Wind is from the W-SW averaging 15-20 mph with gusts of 38 mph (58 in the Bridger Range). Mountain temperatures are in the low teens under cloudy skies and scattered snow showers. Wind will continue today, temperatures will reach the high teens and snowfall will drop 1-2” during the day.
COOKE CITY
UPDATE: We are raising the avalanche danger in Cooke City to CONSIDERABLE.
In the last 12-24 hours there was a skier-triggered avalanche and a natural avalanche at Daisy Pass (observation and photo). The natural slide was found by the groomer on the road near the pass. With only an inch of new snow and moderate winds the snowpack was not expected to avalanche. I was wrong. Our uncertainty on what exactly is going on is high. Cooke City had many large avalanches break into Tuesday. We are unsure what layer these slides are breaking on. My advice is to stay off of avalanche terrain. Natural and human-triggered slides are likely.