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GNFAC Avalanche Advisory for Mon Jan 10, 2011

Snowpack and Avalanche Discussion

The northern Madison Range:

The northern Madison Range, specifically the mountains around Big Sky, holds the weakest snowpack in our advisory area. The main culprit for this current designation is a layer of buried surface hoar located 2-3 feet below the surface in many areas.   This layer formed over three weeks ago and has gradually gained strength. This strengthening is a trend we like to see but it does cause some stability assessment problems.