There are about dozens of places to snowboard near Missoula, Montana. City officials issued a reminder earlier this week that Mount Jumbo isn’t among them.
The reminder comes after snowboard tracks were spotted by a local. The majority of the mountain is closed in the wintertime. In part, that closure helps protect the local elk population. It’s also to reduce avalanche risk.
“When we have heavy snow conditions, which are the prime time to go ski some powder, we also have higher avalanche danger,” Missoula Parks and Recreation’s Jeff Gicklhorn told KPAX, the local news station. “At the time that those individuals trespassed last Friday, the Western Montana Avalanche Foundation had issued an extreme avalanche forecast for the backcountry.”
The time in which snowboarders poached Mount Jumbo, avalanche risk was high, Gicklhorn said. The storm that swept in provided more snowfall than an infamous storm in 2014, which did lead to a catastrophic avalanche.
That 2014 slide tore through the Rattlesnake neighborhood, and killed one woman. It buried several others, and destroyed a home. It was triggered by a snowboarder poaching Mount Jumbo. Dozens of residents and police officers rushed to the scene with shovels and chainsaws. At least one child was buried, and soon later, two more were fond buried alive under the snow.
The rider unintentionally triggered a slab avalanche on the west face of Mount Jumbo. Winds froze the snowfall, which made the heavy snow more prone to collapse.
Gicklhorn told KPAX that riders should head to Marshall Mountain, just outside town. That will ensure that fewer lives are at risk, and eliminate the potential for a $500 fine for trespassing at Mount Jumbo. Local residents are encouraged to call 911 to report active trespassers.
“There are eyes on the mountain. City Parks is not going up there and driving around the mountain trying to look for trespass, but there are residents that really do care about this closure and about making sure that the elk are protected and the residents, they themselves live in the Rattlesnake, are also protected,” Gicklhorn said to KPAX.
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