The West Central Montana Avalanche Center would like to thank Ski-Doo and Gull Boats & RV in Missoula for their continued support of avalanche forecasting, avalanche education, and public safety across western Montana.
Reliable access to remote backcountry terrain is essential to the work of an avalanche center. Throughout the winter, our forecasting team travels into the mountains to collect snowpack, weather, and avalanche observations that help generate avalanche forecasts and public safety information for the communities we serve. These observations provide critical insight into snowpack structure, avalanche activity, and changing conditions across the forecast area.
The loaner Ski-Doo snowmobile provided through this partnership helps our forecasting team access remote terrain efficiently and safely, allowing us to gather observations from areas that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to reach on a regular basis. The machine supports a wide range of operational activities, including snowpack assessments, avalanche observations, weather monitoring, forecast development, and avalanche education.
During the 2025–2026 winter season, the Ski-Doo played an important role in supporting avalanche forecasting operations throughout western Montana, including the Bitterroot, Rattlesnake, and Seeley Lake forecast zones. The machine helped our forecasting team access remote backcountry terrain, collect field observations, evaluate the snowpack, and monitor changing avalanche conditions throughout the season.
This season also marked the first winter that the avalanche center had access to two modern mountain snowmobiles. Having multiple machines available significantly improved our ability to collect field observations and support forecasting operations across a large and diverse geographic area.
In addition to field forecasting, Ski-Doo support helped make possible a variety of public-facing avalanche information and education efforts throughout the season. Field observations collected by our forecasting team contributed to avalanche forecasts, snowpack updates, educational presentations, public awareness events, and snowpack summaries that helped mountain users better understand conditions across western Montana.
The West Central Montana Avalanche Center is grateful for the support of Ski-Doo and Gull Boats & RV in Missoula. Partnerships like these help ensure that our forecasting team can continue providing timely avalanche forecasts, field observations, and avalanche education that support informed decision-making in the mountains.
Thank you for supporting avalanche forecasting, avalanche education, and public safety across western Montana.
