The Midwest is definitely not known for avalanches, but a slide at Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort, Michigan happened on one of its trails over the weekend.
“How big is Big Powderhorn?” the Instagram post said. “We’re so big we had a real avalanche occur on Double Barrel last night!”
The slide was from a snowmaking whale poised at the top of a black diamond trail called Double Barrel. The steepness of the slope helped contribute to the slide. It’s possible that some of the 5” of new natural snowfall could have contributed. No one was hurt in the avalanche.
Big Powderhorn has gotten 32” of total snowfall this season. The ski area is located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It has 600’ of vertical drop. It was forced to close early last season at the beginning of March due to unseasonably high temperatures and an extreme lack of snowfall.
The resort is planning for an opening day of December 20, 2024. The natural snowfall that it’s received so far has allowed the resort to build up its base, it’s large surface area requires a significant amount of snowmaking to get full coverage.
Photo: Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort
“Having as much terrain as we have, it just takes a long time to cover that all with man-made snow,” General Manager Bruce Noren said to the local television station TV6. “We’re really counting on mother nature to give us a little more snow. Usually, she doesn’t let us down. I mean, last year was a disappointment, but we’re 12 miles from Lake Superior. We’re blessed to have great lake effect snow.”
It is certainly not the first avalanche of the season in North America. Earlier in December, a video released by the Mt. Washington Avalanche Center shows a snowboarder avoiding a snow slide toward the end of November. Steamboat Resort experienced its own avalanche around the same time period. The resort dubbed it the largest slab avalanche they've seen at Steamboat in almost two decades. The unstable snow pack was a result of early season conditions.
An avalanche was triggered in southern Minnesota back in 2022. After 18 inches of snow fell at Welch Village, a large snowmaking mound slid that left the run dubbed Chicken closed for the rest of the day. After some unseasonably warm temperatures in 2017, an avalanche was triggered at Caberfae Peaks in Michigan.
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