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These two slides occurred near Big Sky around 12/24. Photo: C. Corey

Three avalanches can be seen in this photo. They are several of many in Hyalite Canyon. Photo: B. VandeBos

Looking down the avalanche path shows a wall of trees that could easily kill a person or cause major trauma. This is a bad place to get caught, but also a bad place to wait for your partners to ski down from above. Unfortunately Mt Ellis doesn't have very many or very good safe zones from which you can watch your partner ski. Photo: GNFAC

This photo shows where the skier's tracks entered the avalanche and approximately where he triggered it. The weak layer of facets that fractured can be seen scooped out of the snow. The crown profile can be seen here: http://www.mtavalanche.com/images/13/ellis-crown-profile?size=_original
  Photo: GNFAC

This avalanche on Mt Ellis was triggered just below the person in this photo. Total snowpack depth was about 80cm or 2.5 ft. See http://www.mtavalanche.com/images/13/ellis-crown-profile?size=_original for a crown profile. Photo: GNFAC

Overview of a skier triggered slide that occurred on Christmas day 2013. The skier followed the red line. It was triggered at the little red dot. He was able to maintain his speed and escape to the left. The avalanche debris ran about 700 feet vertical through the trees below. Conservatively the debris involved 4,000,000 pounds of snow. Photo: GNFAC