Photos

New snow in the Bridger Range rests on top of a firm ice crust. If temperatures warm and the sun comes out or if the wind blows, this new snow could increase the avalanche hazard. Photo GNFAC

At 1030 the snowpack was tenuously holding onto last nights cold.  It was -2C, 10 cm under the surface. This will quickly turn to zeroC which means water can begin to percolate down and weaken the snow further.  Tomorrow (Tue, March 31) will likely see wet loose avalanches as a result. Photo: GNFAC

Two small wind slabs released naturally on a E aspect on Bridger Peak and were seen on Wednesday, Feb 25. No other avalanche activity was observed. Photo: GNFAC

"Triggered two small avalanches in wolverine bowl today. One started from sluff we kicked off while descending from the ramp into the bowl. The second was triggered by my friend on a 40 degree SE convex slope. The crown was no deeper then 1 ft, but it broke over 150ft wide. Not enough debris to be scary, but with another foot of snowfall I would worry. Both slides broke on a soft crust at the new/old interface." Photo: P. Dixon

This pit was dug near the ridgeline a few hundred feet to the south of the top of the Ramp (N of Bridger Bowl).  The new snow was bonding well to the old snow surface and would not break in our tests. We did not find weak snow in this area and rated the stability "very good". Photo: GNFAC
 

A skier triggered this small wind slab in the Bridger Range north Mt. Baldy. Photo J. Bacaj

This photo accompanies an article Doug Chabot wrote titled, "Sidecountry: Rated R" in the January issue of Carve (http://www.mtavalanche.com/blog/sidecountry-rated-r). Photo: GNFAC

This avalanche was from the weekend. There is now 8 inches more loading slopes in the starting zones. Photo GNFAC 

A layer of near surface facets was found buried in the snowpack in the northern Bridger Range about 2 feet above the ground on an E facing slope. Photo: Anon
 

Skiers triggered multiple wind slabs like this one (6-10 inches deep) in the northern Bridger Range in Frazier Basin. Photo: Bridger Brigade

This was one of the weakest snowpacks we found on Saddle. Facets near the ground were big and weak even though they had just started to bond to each other somewhat. Other places had a stronger snowpack. Regardless, because the snowpack is so thin, it will likely weaken when normal December temperatures return. Photo: GNFAC

Above Fairy Lake we had many large collapses as we toured on our skis.  The weak layer of facets at the ground are still unstable.  In this pit the facets were under a very dense wind slab and broke with ECTP15. Photo: A. Fauver

This pit was dug on a NE facing slope at 8,000 ft. north of Bridger Bowl. Facets near the ground continue to propagate in stability tests indicating an unstable structure. Photo GNFAC 

The snowpack is extremely unstable and avalanches are being triggered from far away.  This slide was triggered as a ski ptroller came down Sluice Box.  It ran on facets on the ground and is indicative of many slopes throughout our forecast area.  Photo: GNFAC

Bridger Bowl has a backcountry snowpack because the ski patrol has not done avalanche mitigation yet. It's wise to treat the area as such and only expose one person at a time.  In this photo five people skin up.  Thirty seconds after this pic was snapped the entire Bronco face cracked and collapsed...a close call. The snowpack does not care if you are in or out of bounds right now...it's all the same. Photo: GNFAC

This was taken this morning (Wed) at Bridger Bowl after we issued an Avalanche Warning.  Over 3 inches of SWE got piled onto a base layer of facets.  This layer is breaking very, very easily. I was able to get entire slopes to fracture and whumph with simple ski turns.  Photo: GNFAC

This avalanche in the Bridger Range illustrates the avalanche danger on even the smallest slope. Photo: Bohr

This avalanche was remotely triggered by a skier in the northern Bridger Range yesterday.  The crown is up to 5 feet deep! Faceted, weak snow underneath wind slabs are especially unstable. Photo: B. VandenBos

This avalanche was remotely triggered by a skier yesterday in the northern Bridger Range. It's not very steep. Photo: B. VandenBos

This slide broke on a 40 degree slope. The debris was not deep enough to bury a person, but could have caused trauma due to the exposed rocks. Photo: GNFAC