Bridger Bowl Area Backcountry Avalanche Rescue

I know snow junkies - this was a tough year.  The snow was really slow to get here, temps were weird, and the avalanche danger basically never came down throughout the season.  Well my friends, late season backcountry is just the same.  The mountains around Bridger Bowl recieved over 40 inches of NEW snow over this past weekend!  HOWEVER, according to the Gallatin County Search and Rescue "While that might be tempting for skiers, the snow is heavy, wet and unstable.  A very bad combination.  Today we were lucky, nobody was hurt or worse.  Late season skiers need to keep those conditions in mind.”

Here's the official Press Release....

More than two dozen Gallatin County Search and Rescue personnel responded to the report of a skier caught in an avalanche Sunday afternoon in the Saddle Peak area, south of Bridger Bowl. According to Sheriff’s Incident Commander Deputy Mark Hernandez a 35-year old male from Bozeman, skiing the back country triggered an avalanche that pulled him 50-feet down-slope before he managed to get himself out.  That avalanche triggered a far larger, secondary avalanche that slid 1,000 feet down the mountain-side. Two other skiers in the area saw the second slide, spotted a set of ski tracks that abruptly ended at the beginning of the first slide and called 9-1-1. Rescue Heli-skiers, snowmobilers and search dogs staged the main parking lot of Bridger Bowl to begin a search when they found out the skier was okay.

Please be careful out there!