Woman Killed, Man Injured In Snowmobile Accident After Going Off Trail

GRAND COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) -- A 29-year-old woman died and a male passenger suffered a broken leg Sunday morning when their snowmobile collided with a tree in the backcountry southwest of Grand Lake. Both were wearing helmets.

The couple was riding on the Idleglen trail system but had gone off-trail.

Greg Foley of Grand County Search and Rescue said the team was paged out at 9:23 a.m. When the first team got to the accident, others were already doing CPR.

Foley said the area is lacking snow depth.

Another search team member wrote on GCSAR's Facebook post, "The trails are not well covered...On portions of the trail, GCSAR was riding on bare ground."

Much of the trail system, which lies inside the burn area of last summer's East Troublesome Fire, is littered with fallen burned trees. Trails crews have been working to clear the debris but much remains to be done.

For those two reasons, Foley, snowmobilers are heading off-trail.

But conditions there are even less safe.

"Leaving the trail can be dangerous. There are downed trees, logs, limbs and rocks barely covered by the snow," GCSAR's Facebook post stated. "If you are uncomfortable riding in theses conditions, please chose another way to recreate and come back to snowmobile later in the season."

The identity of the deceased will be released later by the Grand County Coroner.