09-10

Hundreds of tracks are still visible to the right of the avalanche.  The slope that slid was also littered with tracks from the day before. Photo from TGR website

The crown line with the gouge from the cornice that triggered it still visible.  It fractured nearly 1000ft wide and ran about 2000ft vertical. Photo by Carl Reed

Gallatin County Search and Rescue responded to search the debris for possible victims.  Approximately 40 volunteers were involved including 4 avalanche dogs.  A helicopter was used to survey the scene and to ferry several searches and one avalanche dog to another part of the debris. No one was reported missing.  No beacon signals were detected. Search dogs did not indicate anyone was buried either.  Photo by Ryan Minton

The powder cloud from the avalanche as seen from the ridgetop.  This avalanche ran about 2000ft vertical giving it plenty of time to accelerate close to 100 mph with lots of destructive power. Photo by Brad Coffey

Photo taken near the toe of the debris which extended across the entire bottom half of the photo.  Debris was deposited from the base of the cliffs across the entire foreground in this picture as deep as 20ft.  Photo by GNFAC

The path of this avalanche runs through many, many terrain traps which make getting caught in this avalanche unsurvivable.  Gullies, trees, cliffs, etc. act as terrain traps which cause trauma and cause debris to pile up more deeply. Photo by GNFAC

A view of the crown as skiers descend to begin a beacon search.  The portion of snow remaining is called hangfire.  It poses its own avalanche risk and should always be approached cautiously.  Photo by Brad Coffey

This avalanche broke nearly 1000ft wide and ran about 2000ft vertical.  Photo by John Shankland

A significan portion of Saddle Peak (right side of photo) did not slide.  This area was quickly recieving wind blown snow and posed a potential hazard to rescuers below the cliffs.  For this reason the number of rescuers and the total search time was limited.  Fortunately no one was reported missing and no one was observed getting caught in the avalanche.  The Bridger Bowl Ski Patrol conducted a thorough and excellent interview of all witnesses. Photo by Alex Marienthal