Avalanche advisory moderate

Glacier Country Avalanche Center issued its backcountry avalanche advisory Friday, Feb. 17. The report calls the avalanche danger above 5,500 feet “moderate.”

Mountain weather conditions show light snow daily. The heaviest snow is in the Mission, Swan, Flathead, Livingston and Lewis ranges on the Flathead. The Kootenai mountains saw generally only trace amounts of snow.

Natural avalanches are unlikely, but human triggered avalanches are possible.

“Concern is steep, open slopes and gullies lacking vegetative and terrain anchors, particularly slopes with a relatively thin snow cover and a basal lawyer of weakly bonded, eroding, faceted grains,” avalanche specialist Stan Bones wrote in the report.

The report advises to be alert to new snow loading either from precipitation or wind on existing buried weak surface areas.

The backcountry forecast calls for a moderate weather system to impact the region beginning the evening of Friday, Feb. 17 through the weekend. One to four inches of new depth is expected each day. Daytime temperatures should remain in the high 20s to mid-30s.