{"id":2452591,"date":"2019-12-25T22:24:01","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T05:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/colorado-remains-most-dangerous-state-for-avalanches\/"},"modified":"2019-12-25T22:24:01","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T05:24:01","slug":"colorado-remains-most-dangerous-state-for-avalanches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/colorado-remains-most-dangerous-state-for-avalanches\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado remains most dangerous state for avalanches"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Looking up the slide path from the toe of the avalanche. The crown face is obscured by the clouds at the top of the image. The avalanche was approximately 285 feet wide at the crown face and around 375 feet wide at the toe. The avalanche ran around 425 vertical feet.<\/strong>
Colorado Avalanche Information Center\/Courtesy Photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Colorado again retained its macabre status as the country\u2019s most dangerous state for avalanches, according to data collected by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.<\/p>\n

Since at least 1950, the amount of avalanche deaths in Colorado have far surpassed that of any other state, and the most recent avalanche cycle was no different. The Avalanche Information Center released its annual report earlier this month, highlighting statistics from one of the most substantial avalanche seasons in the past century.<\/p>\n

During the 2018-19 season, the state recorded 4,273 slides \u2014 478 in the Vail and Summit County region \u2014 including 92 that caught people on their way down. In all, 135 individuals were caught in avalanches, a high water mark over at least the past decade, and eight of those people were killed, the most since the 2013-14 season. Of the seven other states that recorded an avalanche fatality last season, none had more than four.<\/p>\n

A prolific winter from a snowfall perspective helped to drive avalanche numbers. Colorado\u2019s snowpack peaked April 5 at 133% of the state\u2019s 30-year median. Likewise, Summit County recorded higher than normal snowfall levels. According to the Avalanche Information Center, from November through April, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area recorded about 104% of its average snowfall, Breckenridge Ski Resort recorded 161% of average, Copper Mountain Resort recorded 118% of average, Keystone Resort recorded 115% of average and Loveland Ski Area recorded 117% of average.<\/p>\n

But looking back over the past 70 years, it\u2019s clear that the trend of heightened avalanche danger around the state isn\u2019t a recent phenomenon. Since the 1950-51 season, Colorado has recorded 287 avalanche fatalities, easily dwarfing other danger areas like Alaska (158), Washington (130), Utah (120) and Montana (119).<\/p>\n

One explanation for the state\u2019s elevated avalanche danger is certainly the number of recreationists heading out to Colorado\u2019s backcountry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat makes a huge impact,\u201d said Avalanche Information Center Director Ethan Greene. \u201cThe more people you have exposed to avalanche hazards, the more chances you have of someone getting involved in an avalanche. We have a huge winter recreation industry and culture in Colorado. We have about 27 major ski areas. We have highways that run through the mountains, a lot of people that live in the mountains, and people who visit us to play in the mountains. So there are a lot of people trouncing around in the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rise of the backcountry recreation culture nationally helps to shed some light on more recent trends in avalanche fatalities. For example, in the 1980s, there was an average of just 14.3 avalanche fatalities per season compared with 25.6 in the past decade. In 2018-19, 12 of the nation\u2019s 25 avalanche deaths were individuals out backcountry touring and eight were snowmobilers.<\/p>\n

But an increase in popularity in backcountry recreation doesn\u2019t help to explain why Colorado alone suffers so many more avalanche deaths historically than anywhere else in the country. According to Greene, the state\u2019s unique snow climate often creates less predictable avalanche conditions than in other mountainous areas around the country. In most areas, avalanche danger tends to spike and stabilize quickly following a storm, but in Colorado, weather events can create lingering instability for weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weak layers that we get are what you\u2019d call persistent weak layers,\u201d Greene said. \u201cThey\u2019re formed from dry, clear and calm weather conditions. But those can cause us problems for days, weeks and sometimes months. They can happen in other parts of the United States, but they\u2019re less common. We\u2019re dominated by three main things: high elevation, we\u2019re far away from oceans, and we have a lot of wind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re farther away from a major moisture source, and we tend to have a shallower snowpack. Our snowfall tends to be lower density, our air tends to be colder, and we have a lot of wind. You can get a lot of wind in the coastal mountains, too, it just tends to be more dramatic individual events and not as consistent. \u2026 We have tricky avalanche conditions more often than a lot of other areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite some similar conditions to last season, Greene again noted that its unlikely the state will be hit with another historic avalanche season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly hope the 2020 season isn\u2019t going to stack up to the 2019 season,\u201d Greene said. \u201cBut we do have some very similar conditions in the snowpack right now to what we did this time last year. We have a very weak basal snowpack, which is why we\u2019ve seen so much avalanche activity over the last month. And how that plays out over the next couple months really depends on what kind of weather events we get.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a storm headed our way later this week, so you can expect the avalanche danger to rise with more snow and wind. But in general the avalanche hazard has been dropping over the last few days, and we hope it\u2019s going to be a really fun and safe holiday season for everyone living here and visiting.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking up the slide path from the toe of the avalanche. The crown face is obscured by the clouds at the top of the image. The avalanche was approximately 285 feet wide at the crown face and around 375 feet wide at the toe. The avalanche ran around 425 vertical feet.Colorado Avalanche Information Center\/Courtesy Photo […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 00:17:41","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}