On October 17, rain turned to snow and blanketed the mountains of southwest Montana with a fresh coat of snow. Photo: Yellowstone Club Webcam
On October 17, rain turned to snow and blanketed the mountains of southwest Montana with a fresh coat of snow. Photo: Bridger Bowl Webcams
The 26th annual fundraiser for the Friends of the GNFAC is October 25 at the Emerson Cultural Center. More info and tickets at: https://events.eventgroove.com/event/Powder-Blast-2024-101627
From IG message: "I was at the bottom of the Gardner Headwall when that avalanche happened. Feel free to share..."
From obs 5/23/24: "shooting cracks in the top 4 to 5 inches of new snow in middle basin" Photo: N. Greiner
From obs 5/23/24: "Toured to the top of PK during today’s storm. Snow was very wet and heavy. We saw no other slides or signs of instability on the way up. Coming down skiers right of flippers, all 3 of us caused small slides and cracking within the new snow. I triggered the largest slide, which was 6-8” deep and 12’ wide." Photo: T. Jordan
From obs.: “Our party (3) triggered a significant wet loose slide on the fin today. I, the first skier dropped in next to existing tracks from earlier in the morning. I made a couple of small turns in unskied snow to test it and decided that not much was moving. As I continued down the wet surface snow started to slide and accumulate. My partner called me on the radio to tell me a lot of snow was moving behind me and I cut left. I traversed hard to lower angle terrain until I felt I could safely descend the rest of the slope. My partners descended the bed surface until they could traverse out.
We made several key mistakes today. We knew it would be warm and that we should be up and down early. We left later than planned, moved slower than expected and failed to adjust our plan. We mistook lack of wet loose activity on similar aspects and elevations on features we could see as sign of stability. We failed to make a plan B or establish a turnaround time. We interpreted a party ahead of us that skied the slope as a go ahead. Another party approaching behind us added pressure to go. They also skied the slope after us in similar style to my partners.
In our favor, we communicated well, radios were key, stayed calm and we managed ourselves through the situation. I feel humbled and lucky to have gotten away with a free lesson. One that I didn't think I should have needed.”
On 5/4/24 Skiers triggered large wet loose slides on the Fin near Cooke City
From IG message 4/17/24: "Remote trigger up little bear today. Went to the groundish."
