Incident Overview
A pilot was conducting a local flight around his home airport when he decided to observe the snow conditions on nearby mountains. He spotted a ridge top where he had landed on several previous occasions, and noted that most of it was free of snow. After overflying the strip and inspecting it closely, he determined it was suitable and made an uneventful landing.
Sequence of Events
Once on the ground, the pilot walked around, assessed snow depths, and then prepared to depart back to his home airport. During the takeoff roll, the airplane drifted slightly to the right, moving onto what the pilot believed was ground covered with light snow. However, this area was actually a snow drift formed by snow blown to the side of the ridge. As the airplane contacted the snow drift, it began pulling to the right. The pilot still expected the airplane to take off without difficulty, but the right main tire broke through the crust and dug into the snow. The airplane then nosed over onto the snow drift.
Post-Accident Actions
The pilot quickly shut off all switches, braced himself with an arm against the ceiling, and released his seat belt and shoulder harness. After a few seconds, he re-entered the airplane, shut off the fuel selector valve, and retrieved a snowmobile suit, a GPS unit, a personal locator beacon, and a survival kit from the baggage. He was able to obtain a cell phone signal and called his wife to arrange a pickup point. The pilot then hiked 2-3 miles through very deep snow, mostly in the dark, with a 3,000-foot downhill elevation change, to reach the pickup point.