Skier unhurt after triggering avalanche on

A skier triggered an avalanche Christmas Day in Jewel Basin, but he managed to survive after being buried waist-deep in snow from the slide.

The skier was uninjured, according to a report from the Flathead Avalanche Center, although the avalanche was large enough to bury, injure or kill a person.

The slide crown was 4 to 12 inches deep and the avalanche ran for about 300 feet.

The skier and a snowboarder were near the radio tower on the ridge of Mount Aeneas when they decided to descend a northeast face into Crown Bowl.

The skier dropped in first, made three turns and triggered the slide. He was carried 100 to 150 feet by the soft-slab avalanche.

The pair had taken avalanche precautions: They had dug a pit and performed a compression test in the start zone, but did not find any instability in the snowpack.

The Jewel Basin incident prompted a warning from avalanche specialist Seth Carbonari: “Even very experienced backcountry users that are taking all the right precautions and making the best decisions they can with the information they can gather, can be surprised. Use caution when entering slopes from ridgetops avoiding convex rolls and wind slabs.”

The Flathead Avalanche Center had listed the avalanche danger as moderate in its Christmas Day advisory. The next advisory will be issued today.

For more avalanche information, go online to www.flatheadavalanche.org.

In February, a skier was swept to his death in an avalanche in Jewel Basin. That slide ran for 600 feet and was 200 feet wide.