Bridger Range

Today (Saturday, 4/19), I triggered a small soft-slab avalanche at about 7,700' on a E-NE aspect on the headwall between Frazier Lake and Angier Lake in the northern Bridgers. The slide was maybe 6" deep, 20' wide and ran 100-200 feet and involved only the new storm snow over the icy, thick crust underneath. No one was caught or injured, though I had a bit of a scare because my dog was right in the path (luckily she outran it). We had gone up with the intention of skiing the Ainger "Love Chutes", but bailed partway up when that whole aspect turned out to be breakable crust. However, we had beta from another party that conditions on the Frazier-Angier headwall were good, so decided to check that out. We skinned up without incident, following a well-set skin track that followed the line of least resistance; snow surface was variable but seemed stable. Coming down, we mostly followed the ascent route, but towards the end I was tempted onto a fun-looking, untracked stash a bit to skier's left, that seemed only a tad steeper than the ascent line. A few turns into this line is when I triggered the slide, right at the steepest part (mid-high 30s). It definitely took me by surprise given that we'd been skiing great, stable powder in the Bridgers the past couple days. No harm done but definitely a good wake-up call! 

Meant to submit this yesterday (4/18), saw this one wet loose slide that naturally started off some rocks. Decent size by the bottom. Other than that, just some spiff. Surprisingly didn’t see any big wind slabs trigger, despite the widespread wind effect in the northern Bridger’s. Lots of wind scour on southerly aspects. Northern aspects had wind loading. 

"yesterday (4/18), saw this one wet loose slide that naturally started off some rocks. Decent size by the bottom. Other than that, just some spiff. Surprisingly didn’t see any big wind slabs trigger, despite the widespread wind effect in the northern Bridger’s. Lots of wind scour on southerly aspects. Northern aspects had wind loading." Photo: W. Landry

We found soft snow on north-facing terrain in Sac Bowl and off Pomp Peak, skiing until about 2 p.m. on 4/14. The recent storm winds stripped some southeast facing terrain down to crust, but had deposited 4-6 inches of creamy pow in sheltered N zones. Skiing was mostly bomber, with the exception of some wind slab we avoided on a start zone immediately below ridgeline in Sac Bowl. Saw a few small dry loose / point release slides in southern Bridgers, but nothing in N. Bridgers except for old debris piles. 

Winds were cranking at ridge top elevation, transporting what soft snow there was. Minimal hazard formation. I spotted one fresh wind slab avalanche near Hardscrabble. The slide ran several hundred feet in steep terrain but was very thin (R1,D1). Photo: GNFAC

Winds were cranking at ridge top elevation, transporting what soft snow there was. Minimal hazard formation. I spotted one fresh wind slab avalanche near Hardscrabble. Photo: GNFAC