Avalanche risk 'high' for Northwest Montana

The Daily Inter Lake

Avalanche danger in Northwest Montana has tipped into a "high" rating after heavy mountain snowfall Monday and Tuesday.

The U.S. Forest Service's Glacier Country Avalanche Center says the rating applies to slopes between 5,500- and 7,500-foot elevations, where "unstable slab layers are probable on steep terrain."

Slopes below 5,500 feet are rated "moderate" dangers.

Tony Willits and Stan Bones, avalanche specialists with the Flathead National Forest, said avalanche hazards have been increasing steadily, with significant snowloading in the mountains since Saturday. Most automated snow measuring sites in the region have recorded snow-water-equivalent measurements from 2.5 inches to 4.8 inches since then.

In many areas, the precipitation has come in the form of heavy, wet snow on top of a deep base, Bones said. Freezing temperatures have occurred at high elevations since Saturday and there are "windloading" snow accumulations on ridgetops across the region.

Willits said the ratings apply to a widespread area, including the Purcell Mountains, the west and east Cabinet Mountains in the Kootenai National Forest, and across the Flathead National Forest, including the Swan, Mission and Whitefish mountain ranges and along the western front of Glacier National Park.