Photos

A natural avalanche hit Highway 287 near Quake Lake on Saturday afternoon. Luckily the driver of this truck was missed.  In the picture he tries to climb his Chevy through the debris with a pose worthy of a truck commercial.  Photo: B. Beck

After new snow and strong winds the east face of Blackmore avalanched sometime on Sunday.  This avalanche was large and broke axrcoss the width of the upper face. Photo; B. VandenBos

Hurricane force winds in the Bridgers stripped many slopes and heavily loaded others. This slide occurred on the south shoulder of Saddle Peak. Photo B. Vandenbos   

The entier east face of Mt. Blacmore ripped to the ground. This is a major avalanche event and something that does not happen often. Photo J. Bruno

This panorama picture looks downhill from the crown.  A hard slab avalanche naturally released and ran full track.  Photo: GNFAC

Eric Knoff stands next to a 6-foot crown in Lionhead.  This northeast facing slope released naturally during the Avalanche Warning last night.  It was heavily wind-loaded and broke on facets at the ground.  Photo: GNFAC

This slide was triggered along Buck Ridge under Slatts Hill from 3 drainages away (~350 ft). It was a heavily wind loaded, north facing slope. Photo: TJ Krob

This slide occurred on Saturday (1-11-14) while we were investigating a human triggered slide that occurred the day before. It propagated well into the trees on the left of the image. Photo: GNFAC

This skier triggered avalanche occurred yesterday (1-10-14) on an E facing slope just above 9000 ft. It broke on facets about 1 foot above the ground. The main slide was about 300 feet wide and 3-4 feet deep. Another slide released sympathetically. The total width over which the fracture propagated was closer to 500 feet. These slopes were about 34 degrees in steepness but ran onto much flatter slopes. Photo: GNFAC

This slide was a sympathetic release to larger avalanche on an adjacent slope. The slide ran down and covered portions of a skin track. Photo N. Grainger  

This slide was triggered by a skier in Beehive Basin near Big Sky. The slide broke 2-4 feet deep, 300 feet wide and failed on a layer of depth hoar near the ground. Photo N. Grainger 

From Beau Fredlund in Cooke: "Avalanche activity:  noted quite a few more recent slab avalanches today with the clear weather/ good visibility.  Most were of an E, SE aspect- lee to the strong, recent NW winds.  SE Republic Peak went big (500' + wide, running full track), the SE aspect of Amphitheater, ect.  Attached photo of a mid elevation (9,500') east in Cache Creek.  Most of the activity, but not all, near ridgelines."  He nails it again. Photo: B. Fredlund

This avalanche debris traveled about 1200 vertical feet and over a set of cliffs 200 feet tall. Photo: GNFAC

The Football Field north of Saddle Peak avalanched during control work at Bridger Bowl on Sunday, Jan 5th. Photo GNFAC

This is the crown of the Football Field avalanche on Saddle Peak. (P+ slab; 3 ft to 7ft deep; 2-4mm fx  F hardness). It broke on weak facets about a foot above the ground. Photo: GNFAC

This large natural avalanche was observed near Hyalite Peak in the northern Gallatin Range. Heavy snow combined with a weak snowpack pushed many slopes in this are past their breaking point. Photo B. Vandenbos 

A poor snowpack sturcture on Mt. Ellis yielded unstable results in stability tests. Photo GNFAC 

This slide occurred on the Football Field south of Bridger Bowl. It was a sympathetic release to control work being done along the southern Boundary. It was a hard slab that failed on a layer of facets about a foot off the ground. Photo. A Marienthal 

This side occurred on the Football Field south of Bridger Bowl. It was sympathetic release to control work being done along the southern boundary. It was a hard slab that failed on a layer of facets near the ground. Photo A. Marienthal

This slide was triggered from about 70 feet away after skiers got a big collapse. This small slide occurred not far from the Beehive Basin trail head just above Beehive Creek. Although small, this slide is a warning sign that bigger slopes will produce biggere avalanches. Photo: D. Sharaf