Warm Creek Avalanche crown near Cooke City. 2 skiers were caught while traversing, and one was partially buried.
From e-mail: "On 12/29 we parked about 2 miles west of Silvergate and skied a mile west on the road and turned north to the ridge just NE of Baronette pk. We were aware of high avalanche danger but somehow got complacent on our surroundings and ended up getting caught in this slide. The crown was 2-3 feet high and propagated well into the timber on the "Thanksgiving crust"
The slope angle was 33-36 degrees. We were traversing just below a cliff band when it broke taking both of us over a small ledge. I hung on to a aspen tree for awhile before getting pushed into a spruce tree and hung up. My partner hit several trees and was carried down 150-200 feet and partly buried but could get himself out. We both were scratched up a bit but skied out."
The avalanche occurred on a south facing slope around 8,500'. Photo: Anon