Avalanche — West Elk and Sawatch Mountains, Colorado

2025-03-08 · West Elk and Sawatch Mountains, Colorado

Event narrative

This injurious avalanche occurred south of the town of Marble, CO, off of a terrain feature know as Raspberry Ridge, in a run known locally as Money Shot. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) rated the avalanche danger in this area as Considerable (3/5) near and above treeline. CAIC's synopsis said dangerous avalanche conditions exist and indicated that slopes with a northerly component were the most dangerous, with the possibility of triggering a deadly avalanche on any of these slopes. Below treeline, the avalanche danger was listed as Moderate (2/5). The avalanche types of concern were Persistent Slab and Wind Slab. The accident slope on the 8th was steep, high elevation, and faced northeast, all factors that, per CAIC's forecast, made this a dangerous to deadly slope. In addition, this slope was known to be significantly more shallow than nearby slopes, and had a history of avalanching multiple times earlier in the 2024/2025 winter season. In fact, just the day before two backcountry tourers triggered two small avalanches. One of the March 7th avalanches caught one of the backcountry tourers, but they were uninjured. The other avalanche was triggered remotely and broke just below the March 8th accident site.

A full summary of this accident was unavailable. The synopsis given, via CAIC, indicates that a skier triggered and was subsequently caught, carried, and seriously injured by, an avalanche. The skier's partner assisted in digging the skier out of the snow and addressing the injuries as best as possible. The partner then dragged the skier down nearly 600 vertical feet to a trail intersection, where local search and rescue teams were waiting. The skier was then transported to Aspen Valley Hospital via helicopter.

Wider weather episode

In the days prior to this avalanche, which caught and seriously injured a backcountry skier, a strong winter storm brought strong winds and fresh snow the terrain. This accident occurred in an area south of Marble, CO at an elevation of 10,400 feet. This puts it near to above treeline. On the day of the accident, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) rated the avalanche danger, both near and above treeline, as Considerable (3/5), with areas below treeline at Moderate (2/5). The highest avalanche danger was on north-facing slopes and at steep slope angles.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1247932. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.