(View from the bottom)
I've been in Cooke City, MT for the better part of two weeks and it has snowed approximately 4 feet in that time. According to avalanche experts, the danger has been extremely high. The sun came out for the first time on Saturday. I checked with the local avalanche reports and the danger was still high to considerable above aspects of 35 degrees or higher. They also said not to gain false confidence due to the blue skies.
Kurt Heine, John Jackson, Pat Moore and myself took to the hills with all these conditions in mind and did our best to stay out of the way of any avalanche possibilities. We had a good, long day and made it back to the Exxon station in Cooke City at 6:30pm. As we were gassing our sleds for tomorrow, an emergency call was sent out that a massive avalanche had been set off in the Daisy area of the Cooke City mountains. We responded immediately and sped back up the hill in the dark to find the above slide. We worked tirelessly with the local search and rescue teams to try and uncover a buried snowmobiler. It became apparent that we were not going to find him in the pitch black and the Sheriff called off the search around 10:30pm. The photo above was taken at 8:00am Sunday morning.
The slide was caused by a snowmobiler. He became stuck near the top of the of the slide path. As he was getting his snowmobile unstuck, it flipped over and began to roll down the face. This is the cause of the avalanche and it broke 40 feet above him. Rescue crews were out this morning with rescue dogs in search of the missing snowmobiler who has yet to be found as of this point.
I would like to send out my prayers to his family and friends and to let you all know that all of us, (Pat, John, Kurt, & myself), are all fine and in good health.