The Colorado Avalanche Information Center issued avalanche warnings Monday morning for the Aspen area and most of the northern and central Colorado mountains.<\/p>\n
After Sunday\u2019s snowstorm dropped a foot of new snow in some areas, the CAIC said travel is not recommended in avalanche-prone areas, even below treeline, and added that slides could happen on their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are on the cusp of a dangerous avalanche cycle. Naturals avalanches are likely today, and where avalanches don\u2019t release naturally, you can easily trigger one,\u201d forecaster Brian Lazar wrote in the Monday morning update<\/a>. \u201cAvalanches in the storm snow could break one to four feet thick. The thickest, stiffest, and most dangerous slabs are on north and east-facing slopes due to loading from strong southwest winds.\u201d<\/p>\n The warning includes the Gunnison, Grand Mesa, Steamboat and Flat Tops areas.<\/p>\n In addition to the 8 inches at most of the Aspen ski resorts in the past 24 hours, Lazar reported snow totals were 12 to 15 inches near Marble, 13 inches by Gothic, at least a foot near Irwin and 12 inches on McClure Pass and Grand Mesa.<\/p>\n \u201cThis puts us right around an inch of snow-water equivalent, with the deepest areas (near Schofield SNOTEL site) approaching 1.5 inches,\u201d Lazar said. \u201cThat a pretty good load in the less than 48 hours for our weak and fragile snowpack.\u201d<\/p>\n A backcountry skier was killed in a slide Saturday<\/a> on Red Mountain Pass in the San Juan Mountains. He was traveling in a group and four others survived.<\/p>\n According to the CAIC preliminary report<\/a> issued Monday morning, the group was part of an avalanche safety course and two slides occurred.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n