Skiers reported widespread collapsing and cracking of the snowpack, breaking on weak sugary snow near the ground, and said, "snow was falling off trees hundreds of feet away with some collapses." Photo: E. Knoff
This avalanche was triggered on 1/30/21 by skiers from low angle terrain adjacent to the slope, and a long ways away. Photo: G. Stevens
Skiers in Specimen Creek wrote: "Lots of shooting cracks. Snow was falling off trees hundreds of feet away with some collapses."
Skiers at Bacon Rind reported: "Witnessed two huge whumpfs while skinning a NE aspect around 7600’ en route to regaining the main skin track ridge. Both whumpfs shook the snow off trees within a 100 yard radius."
Another group wrote: "Tremendous amounts of collapsing and whumphing today in the bacon rind. We parked at the southern lot and skinned up the ridge; got collapsing and whumphing on most aspects and all elevations."
Witnessed two huge whumpfs while skinning a NE aspect around 7600’ en route to regaining the main skin track ridge. Both whumpfs shook the snow off trees within a 100 yard radius. We didn’t dig a pit as we knew the snowpack was unstable so we played it safe and stayed out of steep terrain.
A natural avalanche occurred on an East aspect in the Maid of the Mist basin. It appeared to have slid last night/this morning. Visibility made it difficult to determine the extent of the debris or the depth of the crown.
While driving down the spur road in Big Sky, I noticed this small avalanche on the SW face of Yellow Mountain around 3:30pm
Hi guys a quick note here I went out with Matt Madsen today I think he sent you his obs too. The snow reacted exactly how you thought it would! We remote triggered a huge avalanche that ripped out the steep side of Ernest Miller Ridge from a safe location on a strategically placed skin track. The slide was about 1,000’ wide and ran about 1,000’ long at the longest part of the toe. The crown looked like it was 8’ in one place and around 4-5’ in others. Lots of whoomphing on the way up, big collapses, we were VERY CAREFUL. Thanks for all the great info on that area. The slide snapped trees. Watching the cracks shoot up and trigger the slope was incredible to see. We stayed low and skied some very low angle pow. Where we triggered the slide, the slope was about 24 degrees, it then triggers on 30ish degrees and then sent the rest of the basin. The snow was so, so reactive. I feel like the danger of avalanches is not only possible but extremely likely in these conditions.
We skinned into the Ernest Miller Ridge area this morning around 8:40am. There was 18-24 inches of fresh storm snow in the bacon rind creek area. As we skinned in, we observed whoomphing and cracking throughout the basin. We ascended right of the normal trail in mellower terrain to the lower bench area. We took a break there and after discussion of the terrain and safe areas to ascend were getting ready to head to the far lookers left trees. A giant collapse happened as we were standing there and sent an almost shockwave like effect up the hill, small ripples and cracks formed way above and away from us and the entire face of Ernest Miller Ridge ripped out and ran the distance of the ridge. We were out of the way of any runout zone and away from the face so in a safe space. It was the largest remote trigger that I have ever experienced and witnessed out in the field. We took some pictures and observed the scope of the avalanche and then decided to ski some 20 degree powder slopes and head for the hills.
Tremendous amounts of collapsing and whumphing today in the bacon rind. We parked at the southern lot and skinned up the ridge; got collapsing and whumphing on most aspects and all elevations. Kept it very low angle. Saw a large avalanche on Ernie Miller ridge; went full width of the east bowl and appeared to be moderately deep. Pulled from the S treed ridge across the entire face and into the trees on the other side of the main bowl. I have included a pic that doesnt really do it justice but hopefully shows scale.
