{"id":793727,"date":"2019-03-08T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T00:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/more-than-302-avalanches-recorded-in-colorado-since-feb-27-many-of-them-are-just-huge-experts-say\/"},"modified":"2019-03-11T10:21:01","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T16:21:01","slug":"more-than-302-avalanches-recorded-in-colorado-since-feb-27-many-of-them-are-just-huge-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/more-than-302-avalanches-recorded-in-colorado-since-feb-27-many-of-them-are-just-huge-experts-say\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 302 avalanches recorded in Colorado since Feb. 27 \u2014 many of them are \u2018just huge,\u2019 experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-362735-208\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li class=\"h-100\" data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/AvyFolo-SDN-030919-7-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/AvyFolo-SDN-030919-7-1024x768.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Susan Gilmore \/ sgilmore@summitdaily.com | This image shows the mountainside after an avalanche starting on the ridgeline between Peak 1 and Mount Victoria tore down it and left a large scar.\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/AvyFolo-SDN-030919-7-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"This image shows the mountainside after an avalanche starting on the ridgeline between Peak 1 and Mount Victoria tore down it and left a large scar.\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><strong>This image shows the mountainside after an avalanche starting on the ridgeline between Peak 1 and Mount Victoria tore down it and left a large scar.<\/strong><br \/>\nSusan Gilmore \/ sgilmore@summitdaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"h-100\" data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Feature-SDN-030919-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Feature-SDN-030919-1-1024x768.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com | Skiers enjoy fresh snow on Copper Mountain Friday morning, March, 8, in view of avalanche paths that occurred on Thursday along Highway 91. Several passing cars were buried on Highway 91 near Copper but no one was injured.\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Feature-SDN-030919-1-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Skiers enjoy fresh snow on Copper Mountain Friday morning, March, 8, in view of avalanche paths that occurred on Thursday along Highway 91. Several passing cars were buried on Highway 91 near Copper but no one was injured.\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><strong>Skiers enjoy fresh snow on Copper Mountain Friday morning, March, 8, in view of avalanche paths that occurred on Thursday along Highway 91. Several passing cars were buried on Highway 91 near Copper but no one was injured.<\/strong><br \/>\nHugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"h-100\" data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Masontowntour-SDN-052216-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Masontowntour-SDN-052216-2.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Frisco Historic Park and Museum | Little remained of Masontown after an avalanche destroyed the all-but-abandoned mining and milling operation.\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Masontowntour-SDN-052216-2.jpg\" alt=\"Little remained of Masontown after an avalanche destroyed the all-but-abandoned mining and milling operation.\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><strong>Little remained of Masontown after an avalanche destroyed the all-but-abandoned mining and milling operation.<\/strong><br \/>\nFrisco Historic Park and Museum<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"h-100\" data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Masontowntour-SDN-052216-2-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Masontowntour-SDN-052216-2-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Frisco Historic Park and Museum \/ Special to the Daily | This 1909 photograph shows Masontown at its height. The mill in the background was the town's driving force. At one point the town consisted of the mill, twelve lode claims and one placer claim. There were also 10-12 cabins, including a bunkhouse.\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Masontowntour-SDN-052216-2-1.jpg\" alt=\"This 1909 photograph shows Masontown at its height. The mill in the background was the town's driving force. At one point the town consisted of the mill, twelve lode claims and one placer claim. There were also 10-12 cabins, including a bunkhouse.\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><strong>This 1909 photograph shows Masontown at its height. The mill in the background was the town&#8217;s driving force. At one point the town consisted of the mill, twelve lode claims and one placer claim. There were also 10-12 cabins, including a bunkhouse.<\/strong><br \/>\nFrisco Historic Park and Museum \/ Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a class=\"show-captions\" href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/local\/more-than-302-avalanches-recorded-in-colorado-since-feb-27-many-of-them-are-just-huge-experts-say\/#\">Show Captions<\/a><a class=\"hide-captions\" href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/local\/more-than-302-avalanches-recorded-in-colorado-since-feb-27-many-of-them-are-just-huge-experts-say\/#\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Summit County awoke Friday to fresh scars carved across many of the county\u2019s mountainsides, as a series of large-scale avalanches that began Thursday continued to roar through the Rocky Mountains \u2014 with more snow on the way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">On Thursday morning, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center had already documented 302 avalanches across the state since Feb. 27 with 209 of them large enough to bury, injure or kill someone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Weekend snowstorms were only a prelude to Thursday\u2019s slides, however, and the CAIC had to issue extreme avalanche danger warnings for four backcountry zones for the first time since the 10-zone forecast format began.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe avalanches are running much larger than they have, in some cases, for maybe 50 to 100 years,\u201d said Spencer Logan, an avalanche forecaster with the center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Logan said the CAIC will likely need several days to record all the activity that occurred Thursday, and he expects the day\u2019s total will register in the hundreds when it\u2019s all said and done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe\u2019ve had a series of large storms Wednesday and Thursday that brought a lot of snow very rapidly,\u201d Logan explained, adding that some areas received as much as 24 inches of snow in a matter of hours. \u201cAll that snowfall combined with wind has created a lot of unstable slopes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">One was fatal. A 48-year-old skier was buried and killed in an avalanche Thursday afternoon near Jones Pass in Clear Creek County. Other avalanche activity was reported in Summit County on Friday in the Ten Mile Canyon, at Breckenridge Ski Resort, by Arapahoe Basin Ski Area and across other areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s historic proportions for the slides that are coming down,\u201d said Charles Pitman, spokesman for the Summit County Rescue Group. \u201cThey\u2019re just huge. You start covering highways feet deep in snow and then have avalanches going across the interstate, that\u2019s something that just doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In his 16 years in Summit County, Pitman has never witnessed anything like the avalanches he saw this week, including a massive slide that carved a new gouge from the ridgeline between Peak 1 and Mount Victoria outside Frisco almost to the base of the mountain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">A SCAR IS BORN<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Based on archive photos from the Frisco Historic Park &amp; Museum, the path of Thursday\u2019s avalanche is not far from the one in 1912 that erased <a id=\"N0x1ef7000N0x1e0c1c0:N0x1ef7000N0x1f01838\" href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/explore-summit\/history\/masontowns-rise-and-fall-above-frisco\/\">Masontown<\/a>, an all-but-deserted mining town on the side of Mount Royal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pitman estimated the recent avalanche must have been a couple hundred feet wide as it ripped down the mountainside and snaked its way through a gully.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Trees caught in its path were wiped out, and the slide petered out toward the base of the mountain, where Pitman noticed the trees in the valley were darker on Friday than they were the day before. He hypothesized the avalanche\u2019s wind gust must have been powerful enough to blow all the snow off the branches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt sort of gives you an idea that it did go down a bit farther,\u201d Pitman said. \u201cI don\u2019t think (the slide) went all the way to Rainbow Lake, but it was certainly heading that direction and my guess is that it got reasonably close.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pitman said the avalanche outside Frisco was naturally triggered and, without any reports of missing persons, the rescue group was hesitant to send crews into the danger zone for fear they might be hurt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It might look like a new ski run now, but Pitman said the chute is so littered with debris that it would be foolish for anyone to try to ride it with such a high risk of catching a ski and being seriously injured or killed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt looks like a beautiful ski run from here \u2014 just take a lift up to it, and you\u2019re in great shape,\u201d he said, \u201cbut in actuality, I think it has so much debris that that would not be a wise thing to ski.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">RESORT SLIDES<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The slides weren\u2019t exclusive to the backcountry, either. At Breckenridge Ski Resort, avalanche activity cropped up inbounds when one tore through an expert-rated trail off the Imperial Express SuperChair early Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Spokeswoman Sara Lococo said ski patrol responded to the incident immediately and no one was hurt. On Friday afternoon, Lococo said she was unable to comment on the cause of the avalanche or whether anyone was rescued as the investigation was still underway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Meanwhile, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area remained closed for the second straight day on Friday due to high avalanche danger. It\u2019s probably a good thing, too, because slides were reported at nearby locations known as \u201cThe Professor\u201d and at a chute down the road from A-Basin known as \u201cthe Widowmaker,\u201d which covered Highway 6 leading up to the ski area. A-Basin is expected to reopen today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">MORE SNOW<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">While the avalanche risk was lowered from extreme on Thursday to high on Friday, more snow began falling on Friday afternoon and forecasters were calling for another 6-12 inches by this morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The snowfall could easily raise avalanche dangers again across the mountains, Logan said, explaining that even as the degree of danger may change slightly, it\u2019s not going away anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pitman is encouraging backcountry enthusiasts to view this as an opportunity to enjoy their favorite ski resorts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The resorts aren\u2019t entirely risk-free, he said, but ski patrol does a \u201csuperb job\u201d controlling avalanches inbounds and they\u2019re much safer than backcountry adventures at this time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cStay inbounds and enjoy the snowpack that way,\u201d Pitman said, adding that it\u2019s not a bad idea for people to carry avalanche beacons with them even at the resorts, just in case something happens.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/local\/more-than-302-avalanches-recorded-in-colorado-since-feb-27-many-of-them-are-just-huge-experts-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This image shows the mountainside after an avalanche starting on the ridgeline between Peak 1 and Mount Victoria tore down it and left a large scar. Susan Gilmore \/ sgilmore@summitdaily.com Skiers enjoy fresh snow on Copper Mountain Friday morning, March, 8, in view of avalanche paths that occurred on Thursday along Highway 91. Several passing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-793727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 22:20:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}