Fourth skier in two weeks dies in Colorado avalanches, officials say

A backcountry skier died after getting caught in an avalanche the day after Christmas — the fourth avalanche death for the state in the last two weeks, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

“So far, December 2020 is one of the worst months for avalanche deaths in Colorado since modern avalanche record keeping began in 1950,” the agency said in a Facebook post.

There have been 106 avalanches in the state since Dec. 21, according to the agency. Three hundred eighty avalanches were recorded for the week leading up to Dec. 20, the agency said on Facebook.

Latest avalanche fatality

The latest death resulted from an avalanche “in the First Creek Drainage or Berthoud Pass … in an area locally known as Chimney Chute, which is a steep, narrow, northeast-facing below treeline chute,” the agency posted on Facebook.

Family members reported the skier was overdue after going on a solo trip Saturday, according to a Facebook post from Grand County Search and Rescue.

The search and rescue team was able to locate the man with a “last seen point” from the family, the agency said.

“The first GCSAR team found a recent avalanche and were able [to] search the debris area, first finding a pair of goggles, and then the person, fully buried,” the post said.

The man was not wearing a transceiver, according to the agency. The search and rescue team turned the skier’s body over to the Grand County Coroner, the post said.

December fatalities

On Dec. 18, three people were skiing “on the northeast end of the Anthracite Range, in an area locally referred to as Friendly Finish,” according to a release from the Avalanche Information Center. Two of the skiers finished their route and returned to their snowmobiles, but the third skier was nowhere to be found, the release said.

The two skiers who made it down found a fresh avalanche where the third skier had planned to travel and found the missing skier “with a transceiver search,” according to the release. “Local volunteers and Crested Butte Search and Rescue” dug the buried skier out but he “did not survive,” the release said.

A skier triggered the avalanche, according to an updated report from the Avalanche Information Center.

On Dec. 19, two skiers died in an avalanche in “an area locally known as the Battleship, southeast of Ophir Pass,” the Avalanche Information Center said in a release. They were reported overdue on Dec. 20, the release said.

Rescuers saw a large avalanche and ski tracks from a helicopter in the dark and later found the skiers buried in debris, according to the release. San Juan County Search and Rescue along with other agencies recovered the bodies on Sunday, the release said.

The avalanche was triggered by an “unintentional release” and was set off by the group of skiers, according to an updated report from the Avalanche Information Center.

November saw far fewer avalanches

The Avalanche Information Center recorded 141 incidents in the month of November, “though only four of them were large enough to bury a person.” Avalanches caught seven people in November, the agency said.

Last season, six people died in Colorado avalanches, according to the agency’s final Accident Report. Only one person died between November and December 2019, the report said.