Photos

Cracking and collapsing on a 31-degree slope near the Lionshead area down south. The slab was 3-4' deep, and the slope was on the verge of being steep enough to avalanche. From the email: " fractured about 20’x10’ area initially, maybe 3-4’ deep. We got off the hill and it continued to fracture in bigger spots but did not slide more than a foot total." Photo: S. Thompson

Skiers in the Bridgers saw multiple large natural avalanches in the Bridgers that had released during recent snow and wind loading. From the email: "Looks like things really went off in the Bridgers in the last few days. Loads of natural avalanche activity, much of it appearing to fail on deeper layers than the new/old interface." This is the third large avalanche that has been reported on Bridger Peak this season. Photo: B. VandenBos

Skiers in the Bridgers saw multiple large natural avalanches in the Bridgers that had released during recent snow and wind loading. From the email: "Looks like things really went off in the Bridgers in the last few days. Loads of natural avalanche activity, much of it appearing to fail on deeper layers than the new/old interface." This avalanche in the Hourglass was triggered by a large chunk of cornice that broke off. Photo: B. VandenBos

Skiers in the Bridgers saw multiple large natural avalanches in the Bridgers that had released during recent snow and wind loading. From the email: "Looks like things really went off in the Bridgers in the last few days. Loads of natural avalanche activity, much of it appearing to fail on deeper layers than the new/old interface." Photo: B. VandenBos

Skiers triggered this avalanche in dense trees while ascending Mt. Ellis. From the email: "While subsequently skiing up through dense trees climbing to the north to attempt to reach the mid section of the going-home chute, a medium-size bowl-shaped opening in the trees released a soft slab just as we were entering the opening. The crown was ~24” deep and ~80-100’ across. Total snow depth in that area was less than three feet. The avalanche ran probably 500 vertical feet down a shallow gully. Neither my partner nor I where caught but way too close for comfort"

Skiers triggered this avalanche in dense trees while ascending Mt. Ellis. From the email: "While subsequently skiing up through dense trees climbing to the north to attempt to reach the mid section of the going-home chute, a medium-size bowl-shaped opening in the trees released a soft slab just as we were entering the opening. The crown was ~24” deep and ~80-100’ across. Total snow depth in that area was less than three feet. The avalanche ran probably 500 vertical feet down a shallow gully. Neither my partner nor I where caught but way too close for comfort." 

Skiers triggered this avalanche in dense trees while ascending Mt. Ellis. From the email: "While subsequently skiing up through dense trees climbing to the north to attempt to reach the mid section of the going-home chute, a medium-size bowl-shaped opening in the trees released a soft slab just as we were entering the opening. The crown was ~24” deep and ~80-100’ across. Total snow depth in that area was less than three feet. The avalanche ran probably 500 vertical feet down a shallow gully. Neither my partner nor I where caught but way too close for comfort."

A skier in Hyalite reported widespread avalanche activity in the Divide drainage. From the email: "Saw this set of crowns just to the looker's left of Divide Peak proper.  Appear to be cornice triggered, I suspect they all released sympathetically, maybe sometime yesterday.  Impressively connected, definite PWL issue. SE aspect. Crowns spanned nearly 1/2 mile of terrain." Photo: B. VandenBos

A skier in Hyalite reported widespread avalanche activity in the Divide drainage. From the email: "Saw this set of crowns just to the looker's left of Divide Peak proper.  Appear to be cornice triggered, I suspect they all released sympathetically, maybe sometime yesterday.  Impressively connected, definite PWL issue. SE aspect. Crowns spanned nearly 1/2 mile of terrain." Photo: B. VandenBos

A skier in Hyalite reported widespread avalanche activity in the Divide drainage. From the email: "Saw this set of crowns just to the looker's left of Divide Peak proper.  Appear to be cornice triggered, I suspect they all released sympathetically, maybe sometime yesterday.  Impressively connected, definite PWL issue. SE aspect. Crowns spanned nearly 1/2 mile of terrain." Photo: B. VandenBos

A group with the MSU advanced avalanches class found multiple slab avalanches that released at various times during this week's storm. Three of the slides ran for a large portion of their slide path. This debris pile was from an avalanche that likely failed Friday morning, and was large enough to break small trees in the slide path. Ski tracks nearby suggest this avalanche was skier-triggered. Photo: A. Schauer

This avalanche on Wheeler Mountain failed right next to one that occurred on the same slope earlier in the week. Photo: G. Antonioli

A skier unintentionally triggered a slab avalanche in the northern Bridgers. The group did not notice any avalanche activity on the snowmobile ride in to the zone. They dug a pit and found poor snow structure and propagation in the new snow layer in stability tests. From the email: "About halfway up my hike I heard a wumpf and started getting carried down. I was carried about 90 yards, I got fully buried for the middle 30 yards but finally surfaced and came to a stop. My two friends were on their sleds over to the side of the face and had eyes on my the whole time. We all had the proper equipment but luckily didn’t need to use it. The crown broke about 40 yards above me, looked about 3.5 ft deep, it went across the 40 yard wide couloir and continued down and around some cliffs another 20 yards." Photo: C. Histon

Skiers near lick creek intentionally triggered this avalanche that failed below the recent snow. From the email: "Ski cut a wind loaded soft slab on 34 degree headwall dropping into Bozeman Cr. drainage. Slope fractured and ran short ways, 100 feet from crown to toe. Crown was 75 feet across and 20 inches deep." Photo: Kenna

Skiers near lick creek intentionally triggered this avalanche that failed below the recent snow. From the email: "Ski cut a wind loaded soft slab on 34 degree headwall dropping into Bozeman Cr. drainage. Slope fractured and ran short ways, 100 feet from crown to toe. Crown was 75 feet across and 20 inches deep." Photo: Kenna

A skier unintentionally triggered a slab avalanche in the northern Bridgers. The group did not notice any avalanche activity on the snowmobile ride in to the zone. They dug a pit and found poor snow structure and propagation in the new snow layer in stability tests. From the email: "About halfway up my hike I heard a wumpf and started getting carried down. I was carried about 90 yards, I got fully buried for the middle 30 yards but finally surfaced and came to a stop. My two friends were on their sleds over to the side of the face and had eyes on my the whole time. We all had the proper equipment but luckily didn’t need to use it. The crown broke about 40 yards above me, looked about 3.5 ft deep, it went across the 40 yard wide couloir and continued down and around some cliffs another 20 yards." Photo: C. Histon

From YCSP: "One of our patrollers spotted a snowmobile triggered avalanche on Cedar Mountain this afternoon. The patroller reported a track entering and exiting the path. The slope was NE facing at approximately 8,600’." Photo: YCSP

A skier triggered this slide around two o'clock in Bradley's Meadow on 1/26. From e-mail: "The snow propagated when I made my first turn on a convex roll above the slope skiers right of the main meadow, just before the flat area before going up The Ramp. The slab broke right under my feet and propagated 20-25 feet on either side of me. The crown was 7" deep where I triggered it but some spots of it were as deep as 13". My friends and I decided that the slide was R3 and D1-D2. Luckily I was able to ski out of the slide right when it propagated so no one was caught in it."

Crown and upper part of path of avalanche that was triggered by a group of four skiers. Two were partially buried (1 injured, 1 killed) on 1/25/19. They were all ascending and near the top of the path when the avalanche broke. The top two skiers held onto trees as the avalanche pushed by them. Photo: GNFAC