{"id":802359,"date":"2019-12-16T10:46:54","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T17:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=376082"},"modified":"2019-12-16T10:46:54","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T17:46:54","slug":"man-rescued-in-heroic-effort-after-being-buried-in-avalanche-on-steamboat-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/man-rescued-in-heroic-effort-after-being-buried-in-avalanche-on-steamboat-resort\/","title":{"rendered":"Man rescued in \u2018heroic\u2019 effort after being buried in avalanche on Steamboat Resort"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 One person was caught and buried in an avalanche at Steamboat Resort midday Sunday. The person was rescued in an effort Dave Hunter, vice president of mountain operations for Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp., called heroic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an incredible response and an incredible result,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n

The persistent hard slab avalanche was human triggered and occurred primarily between Chutes 1 and 2, he said.<\/p>\n

The initial call came into mountain dispatch at 12:58 p.m<\/a>, according to Hunter. Some of the resort\u2019s highest avalanche experts were already at Ski Patrol Head Quarters when the slide occurred.<\/p>\n

At 1:05 p.m., they were extricating the guest, Hunter said, and by 1:06 or 1:07 p.m., the person was \u201cfully extricated and conscious and breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were then transported by ambulance to UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center and are currently in good condition, Hunter said.<\/p>\n

The avalanche started in an area of terrain that is inbounds but currently closed.<\/p>\n

The group of people caught in the slide weren\u2019t skiing out of bounds and did not cross any ropes, Hunter said. They traversed in above Big Meadow, which is open, and below the chutes, he explained. It is believed they triggered the avalanche from below.<\/p>\n

While several other people were caught in the slide that was propagated from above, only one was completely buried. Another person was buried up to their waist.<\/p>\n

There were a total of about eight people involved, Hunter said, but it was not made clear precisely how those people were involved. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, a slide occurred in the same geographical area. However that slide was a results of ongoing avalanche mitigation work, Hunter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a reason why we are keeping terrain closed,\u201d Hunter said.  \u201cThe public needs to bear with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledges the pressure the resort has been under to open more terrain and the eagerness of skiers to get at the terrain still closed.<\/p>\n

But what happened on Sunday is precisely why the resort staff continues to perform extensive terrain assessment and management, which includes avalanche control, he said.<\/p>\n

Hunter strongly urges everyone to use extra precautions \u2014 ski with a friend, check the conditions and \u201cin areas you normally feel comfortable, you need to have your guard up and think about unintended consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

And even that mitigation work is no guarantee, Hunter noted. \u201cSnow is a wild thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there is \u201clocal angst to get into Fish Creek Canyon,\u201d had something happened there, for example, ski patrol \u201cmay not be able to respond as quickly and easily. And it could end with a different result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent conditions have created \u201csubstantial unstable snowpack,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the avalanche danger for the backcountry in Steamboat and the Flat Tops Wilderness Area was high. On Sunday, it went one notch down to considerable.<\/p>\n

Conditions remain dangerous, Hunter said, largely because of the 63 inches of snow in October, followed by unseasonably warm weather including rain, and then the approximate 36 inches of snowfall over the past week, along with wind.  <\/p>\n

Kreston Rohrig, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center<\/a>\u2019s dedicated forecaster for the Steamboat area\u2019s backcountry, called the weekend storm \u201ca big test for the northern mountains.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a really nasty layer of snow from October sitting near the ground,\u201d he said. And, in the event of a big snow, a heavy load on top can cause the failure of that bottom layer. Because of a metamorphic process, that October layer has a weak and angular grain, Rohrig explained.<\/p>\n

And any storm with \u201cwarm, moist air packs a lot of punch,\u201d he said. Which is why they always measure the snow water equivalent as opposed to just measuring the depth.<\/p>\n

When traveling into the backcountry, Rohrig advises people pay close attention to the Avalanche Center\u2019s website or mobile app, have avalanche gear and training, and most importantly \u2014 when there are warnings \u2014 avoid avalanche terrain altogether. Avoid slopes steeper than 30 degrees, he said, and \u201cidentify and be aware of terrain traps,\u201d which can be any potential avalanche path that ends in an abrupt terrain change, like a road or a creek bed.  <\/p>\n

Rohrig encourages people to report their observations to the Avalanche Center. \u201cThe more eyes and ears in the backcountry,\u201d the more they are able to accurately forecast, he said.<\/p>\n

Hunter urges people to also pay close attention to the information on the resort\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story is from the Steamboat Pilot. To reach Kari Dequine Harden, call 970-871-4205, email kharden@SteamboatPilot.com<\/a> or follow her on Twitter @kariharden<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 One person was caught and buried in an avalanche at Steamboat Resort midday Sunday. The person was rescued in an effort Dave Hunter, vice president of mountain operations for Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp., called heroic. \u201cIt was an incredible response and an incredible result,\u201d Hunter said. The persistent hard slab avalanche was human triggered […]<\/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-802359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-30 09:11:37","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\/802359","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=802359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}