Football Field Avalanche, Bridger Range Time lapse Video - New Research at MSU

Montana State University's Snow and Avalanche Lab's MS student Diana Saly captured this avalanche event with our time-lapse camera a few weeks ago.
We placed this camera to look at the movement of back country skiers and how this relates to ski compaction, snowpack changes and avalanche hazard. This is just one component of Diana's MS thesis.
You will see that she captured a pretty interesting event - and that these skiers were pretty lucky not to be a few meters further over.. It could have ended very differently for them!
In addition to tracking terrain use, compaction, and snowpack, this could also be useful in real-time rescue situations, as you could review the prior photos (assuming visibility is good) to see how many people, if any, where in the avalanche path at the time of the event.
On this occasion, this actually happened. Diana was just approaching the gun mount to swap the memory cards, right as the head of Ski Patrol was scoping the scene and radioing to his team on the hill. Diana has now shown Ski Patrol how to unlock and operate the camera in case this ever happens again (and Diana doesn't happen to be walking up).. Thanks again to whole Bridger crew for their support.
This work also has ties into our research program called Tracks that is aimed at understanding the decision making process of skiers and riders out in backcountry terrain. The research will look at the human factor involved when individuals or groups decide to go into terrain where there is a high risk for avalanche. To participate in the Tracks program, please visit: www.montana.edu/snowscience/tracks