20131010021169A

During an attempted landing at Bear Creek strip, an unimproved 1600 foot strip located at 2455 feet elevation, the airman underestimated the depth of freshly fallen snow that caused the aircraft to flip over during landing roll. The day prior to departing to Bear Creek strip, the airman had begun evaluating the snow line on the mountains as well as the weather trends. On the day of the accident, the airman noted that it had snowed that evening; however, the snow line still appeared to be above the elevation of Bear Creek strip. The airman received a standard FAA brief and elected to fly to the strip to ?check it out?. Upon reaching the strip, the airman noted the strip did have fresh snow cover and decided to drag it with his 26 inch tires. On the third pass, the airman felt the snow depth was within his and the aircraft?s limits and decided to land. When the aircraft slowed to an estimated 20 miles per hour, the airman recalls tires felt like they sunk further into the snow, the tail rose up and the aircraft proceeded to flip over in slow motion, damaging the prop and the rudder. The airman, sole occupant of the aircraft, was uninjured and had to manually activate the ELT. The airman did file an FAA flight plan and was evacuated the next afternoon.