Avalanche risk ramps up in Colorado heading into the holiday weekend
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) released its full report on the deadly avalanche on Red Mountain Number 3. The avalanche killed 57-year-old Don Moden Jr., a former member of the Ouray Mountain Rescue Team.
The CAIC says we can learn from this tragic accident:
- Moderate avalanche danger does not mean safe avalanche conditions
- Traveling alone in the backcountry significantly increases the risk of avalanche danger, as if an avalanche occurs, you are less likely to be rescued quickly due to the lack of a partner to assist in finding and extricating you; therefore, it is strongly advised to always travel with at least one companion in avalanche terrain
For the better part of a month Colorado has been under very dangerous avalanche conditions and although the chances of triggering avalanches is decreasing, the consequences remain high.
"Since Christmas we've had dozens of human trigger avalanches many of them triggered from a distance or remotely, many of them triggered from the bottom of a slope and a sizeable portion of these were big enough to bury, injure or kill a person," CAIC Deputy Director, Brian Lazar said.
The artic blast of cold air arriving this weekend will have little to no impact on the avalanche danger because when temperatures are this cold nothing changes quickly with the snowpack. But, the fresh powder with up to a foot of accumulation in the Northern mountains will drive avalanche danger to likely increase back to considerable over the holiday weekend.
