T
Team Wild
Well-known member
Please be careful out there. There is a good picture with this story.
http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2010/02/17/news/000avalanche.txt
This is from this mornings avalanche report:
Yesterday morning at 11 a.m. a person triggered a large avalanche on Saddle Peak. Extreme luck was involved as no one was caught. A cornice the size of a VW van broke as a skier walked towards the edge of the ridge at the summit. The block slid downhill and triggered the avalanche. It broke 3-6 feet deep and went 1,000+ feet wide wiping out hundreds of ski tracks from Monday. A powder cloud was seen by most people at the ski area. Our Photos page of the website is filled with pictures which are more vivid than my words can describe.
The Bridger Range got a heavy snow load of 2 ½ feet of snow, or 3 inches of water weight, over the weekend. Strong winds created thick slabs adding further weight to the slope. And although skiers got lucky and didn't trigger it, the thousand pound cornice did. And the avalanche broke deep. It fractured on a layer of facets underneath the hard slab that we identified as a problem back on December 17th. Karl and I made a video that day which is well worth seeing again (video). After I turned off the camera I sarcastically said to him, "This is the video we're going to watch in Feb to explain why Saddle slid." And here we are.
http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2010/02/17/news/000avalanche.txt
This is from this mornings avalanche report:
Yesterday morning at 11 a.m. a person triggered a large avalanche on Saddle Peak. Extreme luck was involved as no one was caught. A cornice the size of a VW van broke as a skier walked towards the edge of the ridge at the summit. The block slid downhill and triggered the avalanche. It broke 3-6 feet deep and went 1,000+ feet wide wiping out hundreds of ski tracks from Monday. A powder cloud was seen by most people at the ski area. Our Photos page of the website is filled with pictures which are more vivid than my words can describe.
The Bridger Range got a heavy snow load of 2 ½ feet of snow, or 3 inches of water weight, over the weekend. Strong winds created thick slabs adding further weight to the slope. And although skiers got lucky and didn't trigger it, the thousand pound cornice did. And the avalanche broke deep. It fractured on a layer of facets underneath the hard slab that we identified as a problem back on December 17th. Karl and I made a video that day which is well worth seeing again (video). After I turned off the camera I sarcastically said to him, "This is the video we're going to watch in Feb to explain why Saddle slid." And here we are.
