DENVER – The Colorado Avalanche Information Center issued avalanche warnings Tuesday for the central and southern mountains of Colorado after several more inches of snow fell Monday and overnight on top of what is already a weak snowpack.
The avalanche warnings are in effect for the Aspen, Grand Mesa, Sawatch Range, Gunnison, Northern and Southern San Juan, and Sangre de Cristo backcountry forecast zones through Wednesday morning. Those zones also have avalanche danger ratings at “high” – 4 of 5 on the danger scale.
Further north, in the Vail and Summit County, Front Range, and Steamboat and Flat Tops backcountry zones, the avalanche danger rating was “considerable” on Tuesday – 3 of 5 on the scale.
More than a foot of snow fell in higher terrain in the central and southern mountains and mixed with high winds – with the highest totals so far from the storm seen in southern Colorado.
Wolf Creek Pass reported 25 inches of snow in the storm, and 13 inches were reported on Coal Bank Pass in southwestern Colorado. Sites northwest of Aspen reported more than 9 inches in some places.
The avalanche warning says that conditions are ripe for large avalanches that can easily buy or kill a person, which can be triggered in most slope facets. The CAIC says travel in avalanche terrain through Wednesday morning is not recommended.
Soft slab and persistent slab avalanches have caused the deaths so far this year and have been widespread in the High Country because of the way the snowpack developed so far this season – with a weak layer that formed in November during a drier period leading the heavier snow that has fallen in the weeks since often being the fail point.
The CAIC has already received reports of 11 avalanches in Colorado over the past two days – most of which were triggered by skiers but were relatively small.
There have been four people killed in avalanches across Colorado over the past two weeks and more than 430 avalanches reported statewide since the beginning of the month.
On Dec. 18, a skier was killed in an avalanche on the northeast end of the Anthracite Range, in an area locally referred to as Friendly Finish west of Crested Butte in Gunnison County.
On Dec. 19, the bodies of two backcountry skiers were found buried in avalanche debris in an area locally known as the Battleship, southeast of Ophir Pass in San Juan County.
And on Saturday, a solo skier was killed in an avalanche First Creek Drainage of Berthoud Pass.
The CAIC said Monday that December 2020 will go down as among the deadliest months in recordkeeping history for avalanches. There have been only six months since 1950 – when modern avalanche recordkeeping began – when four people were killed in the same month in Colorado avalanches.
CAIC Director Ethan Greene said Monday Colorado saw more human-triggered avalanches in a one-week span than they have in any week over the past 10 years.
The CAIC has been advising people not to travel into the backcountry if they are not prepared with proper avalanche equipment and training, and to avoid terrain on, above and below slopes greater than 30 degrees, which are most prone to avalanches.
There were six people killed in avalanches in the 2019-20 season, eight during the 2018-19 season, three in the 2017-18 season and one in the 2016-17 season.
The CAIC has been advising people not to travel into the backcountry if they are not prepared with proper avalanche equipment and training, and to avoid terrain on, above and below slopes greater than 30 degrees, which are most prone to avalanches.