In-Bounds Avalanche Suspends Ski Lift Operation at Big Sky

An in-bounds avalanche at Big Sky Resort, Montana, has temporarily suspended operations of the Swift Current 6 chairlift, according to an update and media release shared by the ski area on social media Wednesday.

The avalanche occurred in the Bone Crusher area prior to Big Sky’s public opening during avalanche mitigation work, leaving debris in and around the upper lift terminal of Swift Current 6, Big Sky said in the release.

Ski patrollers present immediately verified that no one had been injured. As is protocol, the Swift Current 6 was stopped ahead of explosive use. After the slide, seven Big Sky team members were left stuck on the chairlift and were removed via rope by ski patrollers.

“This morning's events reinforce why we conduct thorough avalanche mitigation work before opening to the public," said Tom Marshall, the resort’s general manager of mountain experience, in the release. "Our ski patrol and mountain operations teams executed their safety protocols while managing the situation professionally and efficiently."

The Swift Current 6, which accesses the mid-mountain at Big Sky, will remain closed while mountain operations teams remove snow and conduct a thorough evaluation of the chairlift, the resort said. Big Sky will provide additional updates on the lift’s status as more information becomes available.

In addition to the Swift Current 6 closure, as of Wednesday morning, upper mountain terrain and chairlift openings were delayed due to extremely high winds at Big Sky, the resort said. Winds could reach between 40 and 60 miles per hour in the alpine today, according to Big Sky’s snow report.

Overnight, significant winds averaging 65 miles per hour hit the summit of Big Sky, transporting and loading snow that was later mitigated by ski patrollers this morning, a resort representative told POWDER via email.

While quite rare, in-bounds avalanches that strike lift infrastructure have, historically, occurred at ski resorts throughout North America and the rest of the world.

At Crystal Mountain, Washington, in 2014, a ski-patrol-triggered avalanche destroyed a chairlift while the resort was closed. Two years earlier, in France, a large, slow-moving avalanche wrecked another chairlift at St. Francois-Longchamps.