Snowmobile rider unhurt in avalanche near Cooke City

A snowmobile rider has escaped injury after being caught in an avalanche over the weekend in southern Montana.

The Billings Gazette reports that the avalanche was triggered Saturday by the rider and was one of three triggered near Cooke City that day.

The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center says though the rider was uninjured, the snowmobile was "trashed,"

The center described the avalanche as a hard slab avalanche between 2 and 4 feet (60.9 and 121.9 centimeters) deep.

The avalanche appeared to have happened on the east facing aspect of the far south shoulder of Mt. Abundance.