Avalanche
The welcome holiday snowfall brought widespread avalanche activity to all backcountry zones across Colorado, with in excess of fifty avalanches reported in total over the holiday weekend.
The slides were ‘no surprise’ to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) due to the fragile snowpack structure that this new snow fell on. They received numerous reports of the signs of instability- cracking and collapsing, often leading to avalanche release, but fortunately, serious involvements with moving snow were not reported. No known injuries were reported from any of the slides.
Many of the slides were in the San Juan Mountains in the Red Mountain and Wolf Creek pass areas. The eastern San Juans had received up to four feet of snow from Wednesday through Saturday. Loveland Pass also saw several slides, as did the Aspen and Vail area.
Initial reports of 3 avalanches in closed areas at Crested Butte ski area have since been removed.
The largest avalanche was an “R4/D2”, capable of burying, injuring or killing anyone in its way, that occurred on Wolf Creek Pass.
Last night the center rated avalanche danger as “moderate” in most of the state’s backcountry zones, however, the danger was rated as “considerable” in the San Juan, Gunnison, and Aspen zones.
