Avalanche — West Elk and Sawatch Mountains, Colorado

2013-01-13 · West Elk and Sawatch Mountains, Colorado

Event narrative

The last in a group of 4 skiers triggered a shallow avalanche along a slope favorable for releases due to a weakened snow pack. This shallow slide triggered a larger avalanche that broke to the surface. This larger avalanche carried the skier approximately 250 vertical feet down to the valley floor where he was fully buried. The remaining skiers performed search and rescue operations and found the buried skier about 10 minutes after the avalanche. The skier was unable to be revived.

Wider weather episode

A cold, prolonged period between late fall snow storms and new snow that fell on January 11th and 12th, resulted in a very unstable snow pack across the Raspberry Creek drainage. A skier triggered an avalanche on the 13th which resulted in a fatality.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 493446. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.