After a stormy stretch with heavy snow and powerful wind across the west, large, lethal avalanches have been letting loose across the west.
According to the Flathead Avalanche Center, a "downright nerve-racking" snowpack situation has developed here in Montana, causing accidents and near misses in recent weeks following a long, dry spell that weakened the snowpack. Significant snowfall and then wind loading on top of this weak layer has resulted in very large, unsurvivable avalanches here in Montana. The Gallatin National Forest avalanche center has reported 34 avalanches, 6 people caught, 4 partial burials, and 2 full burials in a week's time.
While there have been no fatal avalanches here in Montana, they've been close. A snowmobiler was killed on the Idaho side of the Centennial Mountains on February 22.
In Utah, four avalanche fatalities have occurred since February 18.
And in California, nine backcountry skiers were killed in one avalanche, making it the deadliest avalanche in the United States in almost 50 years. In a separate incident in bounds at Palisades Tahoe, a person was saved in a deep snowstorm. Some of the Sierra Nevada had more than 10 feet of snow in only a few days.
In Europe, there have been 100 avalanche fatalities this season so far, with the avalanche season there extending into May. Snowfall totals in the Alps have been deeper than anytime in the last 30 years, creating unprecedented avalanche conditions there.
There is still a lot of avalanche season left, and while the snow has been underwhelming in the lower elevations of Montana, the high country can still be wild and dangerous.
