Local skier records large avalanche

On Wednesday, March 3, a video of a large avalanche triggered by skiers at Buck Ridge in the southern Madison range began circulating on Instagram, racking up hundreds of views. Jack Lovely, the skier who posted the video, followed the post with an in-depth analysis of the events leading to the incident.

Lovely, alongside a group of skiers and videographers, set out that day to film themselves flying off a large jump they had built weeks prior. After two promising snowpack tests that showed almost no signs of instability and a discussion between the group members, one skier ‘Wiley Miller’ decided to launch off the jump. The first two tries flowed smoothly, but immediately after landing his third attempt, the slope released, chasing the skier down the hill. Luckily, no one was caught or injured in the slide.

In his post the following evening, Lovely recalled his thought process in analyzing whether people should continue hitting the jump after the results of the second snowpack test, saying, “It scared us. However, the first thing my brain did was try and justify it.”

The circumstantial pressure of the film crew, his content quota for his sponsors and the low probability of triggering an avalanche nearly convinced Lovely to try the jump himself. However, one last thought ran through his head—a quote from his father when they recently discussed the snowpack.

“He said, ‘it’s probably not gonna go but if it does it’s gonna be big. Is it worth a life?’”

Lovely opted to assist the drone pilot instead, watching the event unfold at a safe distance from the slope. On Miller’s third go, he landed perfectly, sending a buzz of excitement through the rest of the group—a buzz that would quickly sour into shock.

“When he stomped I was stoked. It was perfect, that was the shot, it was sick. But a half a second later I saw [the snow] crown and separate,” Lovely said in a recent interview. “Your heart sinks, you’re in shock. I had so much adrenaline, I was shaking even once things settled.”

After regrouping, the skiers attempted to probe the debris of the avalanche to see how deep they could have been buried had they been caught and failed to hit any dirt—meaning it was at least six and a half feet deep.

“We didn’t respect the avalanche report as much as we should have is what it comes down to,” Lovely said. “It was ‘considerable’ that day, and for the prior weeks… There were natural slides all around us, there were human-triggered slides all around the surrounding area—we should have looked at that more and just said no.”

After returning home from a close call, Lovely spent a restless evening recounting the experience, finding their missteps and drafting a report of the events that he later posted to Instagram. Lovely focused on writing the report with a particular message in mind.

“This season especially, I’ve seen a lot of professional skiers and backcountry users who trigger avalanches and primarily focus on what they did right: ‘we dug our pits, we did this, we did that,’” Lovely said. Too often, according to Lovely, people fail to focus on “what we did wrong, and how we’re going to learn from that and strive to not make that mistake again.”

With warm weather and little new snow in the forecast, the danger of avalanches has already fallen significantly. The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center even issued their first ‘low’ rating for the 2021 season. However, as the classic adage goes, ‘low danger doesn’t mean no danger.’ To get the full report on the Buck Ridge incident or get current info on avalanche conditions go to mtavalanche.com. You can follow Lovely on Instagram @jacklovely_.