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From an email: "North east facing slope. Wind Loaded. Snow pit dug showed signs of propagating fractures. The rider was told not to ride the slope but opted to give it a shot. Slope broke about 20 feet above the rider halfway up the slope, then fractured at the top after the slide started. Crown was between 3 and 8 feet deep, 150 feet wide at the top but fractured in the trees as well. The slide broke on the facets near the ground."  Photo:

This avalanche was triggered by a snowmobiler on Friday  afternoon (1/17).

The slope was 36-50 degrees at the crown and put hard slab debris up to 15 feet deep in the runout. The rider and his snowmobile were dug up on the left flank of the slide near the parked snowmobiles in the picture. He was dug up, revived and rode back to town!  Photo: GNFAC

The avalanche was 4-12 feet deep.  It was a very steep and heavily wind-loaded NE facing slope.  The debris consisted of hard slab snow. Photo: GNFAC

This slide occurred on Mt Henderson outside of Cooke City. The slide was triggered by a snowmobiler who ended up fully buried. The rider was buried for nearly ten minutes and was dug out by his partners. Photo B. Fredlund 

This snowpit was dug on Yellow Mountain north of Big Sky. The snowpack structure in this area is poor, with facets near the gound being the layer of concern. It's becoming harder to impact this layer, but it's still capable of propagating a fracture and producing avalanches. Photo GNFAC 

This slide was triggered by a snowmobiler who was caught and fully buried. He was recued by his partners and fortunately survived. The avalanche occurred on an ENE facing slope that was heavily wind loaded. It likely failed on layer of facets near the ground. Photo Bill