East Vail, CO Avalanche Kills 1, Injures 3

An avalanche this morning caught 4 skiers in the East Vail Chutes.  One of those skiers is did not survive.  The other 3 skiers received non-life threatening injuries.

The avalanche occurred at 11:30am today in the out of bounds area called the East Vail Chutes.  These chutes exist between Vail Pass and Vail ski resort.

“an extremely steep, avalanche prone bowl that drains down to Interstate 70 or to East Vail.” – Vail Resort development plan describes the East Vail Chutes thus

 *Update:  The skier in the avalanche was 24-year-old Tony Siebert,Vail founder Peter Seibert’s grandson.

“This is a shocking and terrible tragedy. Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to Tony’s entire family. I want to acknowledge how integral the Seibert family is to the fabric of our community; their contributions to Vail date back to Vail founder Pete Seibert, Tony’s grandfather. This is an incomprehensible loss and we will support the Seibert family and our community through this difficult time. Tony had recently starred in, “Climb to Glory,” a documentary that will forever be a tribute not only to the famed 10th Mountain Division and his family’s legacy but to a wonderful albeit tragically too short life.” – Chris Jarnot, SVP and COO of Vail Mountain

The avalanche danger in the Vail area was rated at ‘CONSIDERABLE” by the Colorado Avalanche Center (CAIC).  The CAIC tweeted this today:

“Large triggered avalanche East Vail, east aspect near treeline. 4 Caught, SAR in progress.” – CAIC Twitter

On December 22nd, a skier was buried in an avalanche in the East Vail Chutes and was successfully extracted by his brother in dramatic fashion.  See full report on that avalanche here:

VIDEO: East Vail Avalanche Buries Skier on Dec. 22nd

This was the 4th avalanche fatality in the USA this winter.