23-24

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Don’t let the beautiful weather today fool you, avalanche conditions remain quite dangerous. Avalanches will be easily triggered if you get on, or even near, any steep slope.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Yesterday, there were many skier and rider triggered avalanches across the advisory area. Large avalanches were triggered on Henderson Mountain and Scotch Bonnet, near Cooke City (</span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/node/30787"><span><span><span><strong><span…;, </span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/node/30780"><span><span><span><strong><span…;). The larger of these slides broke 800 ft wide and 3-4 ft deep (</span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/images/24/scotch-bonnet-slide"><span><span>…;). Riders in Portal Creek remotely triggered four avalanches from up to 900 ft away (</span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/node/30799"><span><span><span><strong><span…;). And Alex and I saw a slide near Lionhead that was remotely triggered during the day yesterday from around 150 ft away by a group of riders in a flat meadow on the far side of a band of trees (</span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/node/30792"><span><span><span><strong><span…;). The remarkably weak layers in the snowpack will take a long time to heal. Loading has just stopped and this process has barely begun. Expect to trigger more of these deep, wide, slides today. Because so many avalanches are being triggered from far away, make sure to give steep slopes wide berths if you’re crossing beneath them.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Dave dug a snowpit in Bear Basin on Thursday and got unremarkable test results but advised ignoring them because of the big picture signs of instability (</span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KoxeBr3WRI"><span><span><span><strong>…;). That night, a natural avalanche broke only a couple hundred feet away from his snowpit (</span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/node/30796"><span><span><span><strong><span…;). This is a great example of why we should all follow his advice and not over complicate our decision making right now. Simply plan to avoid riding on, or beneath, all slopes steeper than 30 degrees regardless of what signs of instability you do or don’t see while you’re travelling through the mountains.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Slopes where winds have blown recent snow into thicker drifts may be even touchier than others, but don’t worry about trying to identify these slopes, because human triggered avalanches are likely on all slopes today whether wind-loaded or not.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE today.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>