Avalanche in Teton & Gros Ventre Mountains, Wyoming

WYDOT scheduled an avalanche control mission in the early hours of Dec 22 in response to recent weather activity on Wyoming State Highway 22 Teton Pass. Crews remotely detonated avalanche infrastructure in the area known as Glory Bowl and brought down the largest controlled avalanche seen by crews in recent years. A snow slide over 30 feet high and 250 feet wide buried both lanes of travel at milepost 10 on the closed road. Clean up operations lasted about 14 hours and the road was reopened just after 5 PM on Dec 22.

Heavy mountain snow and strong winds in the latter half of December led to multiple avalanches of note in western Wyoming.