19-20

<p>While it’s not even Halloween yet, it is sure feeling like winter. Snow coverage is improving with 1-3 ft of settled snow in the mountains and a layered snowpack beginning to develop. Whether you’re enjoying the opening weekend of rifle season, sneaking in some early season turns, or seeking out ice to climb, you need to be thinking about avalanches and choosing your terrain carefully. Give the early season snow the respect it deserves, avalanche accidents and fatalities can and have happened in October (<strong><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/accident/17/10/12">accident report</a></strong>).</p>

<p>With each snowfall the snowpack is getting more complex: this weekend’s snow is sitting on last weekend’s settled snow, which in some areas is sitting on snow that fell earlier in the month. Over the last few days we’ve gotten reports of snow at the ground becoming weak and faceted with unstable test results in the Bridgers and Hyalite, and an avalanche that broke near the ground in the southern Madison Range (<strong><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/node/20831">details</a></strong&gt;). It’s still early season, so we don’t yet have a great handle on the distribution of these weak layers, or know how reactive they will be. This uncertainty merits additional caution. Before getting on a steep slope dig down to find out what’s lurking beneath your feet, then <a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/node/add/snow_observation">drop us a line</a> when you get home so we can share what you’ve found with the rest of the community. We’re reaching a nasty time when there is enough snow to create a larger avalanche but many rocks and other obstacles are still not buried so the consequences of getting caught in any slide, regardless of size, will be high.</p>

<p>Skiers yesterday at Bridger triggered small avalanches within the new snow (<strong><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/images/19/soft-slab-bridger">photo</a></str…;). This is a good reminder that although it may feel safe because the terrain is so familiar, while the ski area is closed there is no avalanche mitigation occurring and backcountry avalanche conditions exist.</p>

<p>We are preparing for winter, setting up weather stations and beginning to collect snowpack information. If you have avalanche, snowpack or weather observations to share, please submit them via our <u><strong><a href="https://www.mtavalanche.com/node/add/snow_observation">website</a></str…;, email (<u><strong><a href="mailto:mtavalanche@gmail.com">mtavalanche@gmail.com</a></strong></u&gt;), phone (406-587-6984), or Instagram (#gnfacobs).</p>