Pete Malewski hikes the debris. The slide propagated through trees, rocks and pulled out slopes near 25 degrees. It put snow over 10 feet high in the trees and ripped out mature timber.
08-09
The debris was 15 feet deep. The rider was buried 6 feet under and his partners dug him out in time. Another rider was partially buried to his chest.
This large avalanche was triggered by 8 snowmobilers traversng across slope near the bottom of the path. 1 person was fully buried, 1 partially; both were dug out uninjured.
The blue line is the up track with the dots representing the skiers and red line the crowns. The lower crown was where an initial fracture was seen seconds before it ripped further above. The slide was lookers left of the "burn" near the common up track.
The 2 skiers who were caught ended up buried to their waist in between the two trees in the right of the photograph. Even though they traveled hundreds of feet down the slope, they came to a rest 1 foot from one another missing the trees.
This slide was triggered by a snowmobiler on an east facing slope in the northern Bridgers. Photo: Kevin Diffendaffer
This human triggered slide occured just south of Sacajawea on a south east facing wind loaded slope. The avalanche fractured as someone rode along safe terrain above the fracture line. Photo: J.Dasilva
This avalanche released on a heavily wind loaded, east facing slope with a small explosive. This slope had received regular control work and ski cutting. It slid on faceted snow near the ground once it received a heavy load of wind blown snow.
Join us for Rome\'s team movie about knuckledraggers, Wednesday, January 7th, 7:30 pm at the Pourhouse. $5 admission benefits the Friends of the Avalanche Center.