Industry News
Three men were lucky they were caught and escaped with just a fine when Snowmass Village police arrested them on Sunday for skiing in an area that was closed due to avalanche danger. Just an hour and a half later a Mountain Rescue Aspen volunteer died in an avalanche in the same area, reports the Aspen Times.
A ski patroller on a lift saw two men about 1 pm on the Rock Island run and confirmed the area was closed because of possible avalanches and went into the area and confronted the men, said Sgt. Dave Heivly. The three men admitted to ducking a rope to get into the area.
All three men, Theren Raufman, 26, of Santa Monica, California; Justin Jones, 24, of Palos Verdes, California; and Christopher Corley, 27, of Carbondale were each given a $250 ticket and kicked off the mountain, Heivly said. John Galvin of MRA was killed about 2:30 pm Sunday in an avalanche in Maroon Bowl, located next to Highland Bowl at Aspen Highlands.
On Monday, officers arrested a fourth man for skiing in a closed area, this time in Snowmass’ KT Gully area, which was closed for avalanche mitigation, Heivly said. Ski patrollers were using explosives in the area about 2:30 pm and had an explosive ready to go when they saw Joshua Attenborough, 22, of Aspen enter the area, he said.
Is the inference that the california skiers weakened the layer or created a stress point that released 90 min later when ski hikers were on the slope adding a percentage of trigger?
No. These events took place in different locations.