Avalanche — Southwestern San Juan Mountains, Colorado

2022-03-17 · Southwestern San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Event narrative

At around 2:00 PM on March 17, 2022, a solo backcountry snowboarder was caught, buried, and killed in an avalanche south of Trout Lake, about five miles southwest of the town of Ophir.

Wider weather episode

Early winter storms dropped heavy snow over the San Juan Mountains in late December 2021 followed by over a month of dry weather into mid February 2022. By mid February, snowfall picked back up across the Colorado High Country with a series of winter storms passing through over the course of several weeks. The dry period in between weakened the snowpack, resulting in hazardous backcountry conditions into the month of March.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1007737. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.