Snowboarder, snowmobiler killed in two separate Colorado avalanches on Sunday
Ten backcountry travelers have died in avalanches in Colorado this season, making this winter the deadliest since 2012-13. The hazard continues to climb as new snow and high winds stress a weak snowpack.
Colorado Avalanche Information Center handout
The death toll from avalanches in Colorado climbed to 10 on Sunday.
A snowboarder touring solo near Mount Trelease north of Loveland Pass was buried in a very big slide around 9:30 a.m. Sunday and a snowmobiler was caught in a slide west of Rollins Pass later in the day.
Alpine Rescue Team rescuers responded to the slide on Mount Trelease early Sunday in a popular backcountry area known as Pat’s Knob. In the debris of the large avalanche, they spotted a deployed airbag backpack.
The snowboarder was found partially buried, his head beneath the snow, in the avalanche, which ran on an east-facing slope above the treeline.
The avalanche Sunday near Rollins Pass also ran on an east-facing slope. A man reported the slide to the Grand County Sheriff’s Office around 1:40 p.m., saying his father had been caught in the slide and was unconscious. “When the avalanche stopped, the snowmobiler was buried underneath his sled on Pumphouse Lake,” the preliminary report by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center reads.
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Search and rescue teams were unable to revive the man, the sheriff’s office said.
Read more via The Colorado Sun.
