After more than a month without any reported burials in Colorado, four backcountry recreationists were caught in avalanches last weekend in Southwest Colorado. On Saturday, two skiers were caught, buried and killed near Vallecito Reservoir and a snowmobiler was caught and buried in a slide near Red Lake Trail off Highway 17. His body was found Monday afternoon.
A fourth person was fully buried in an avalanche Sunday off West Mancos Road and was successfully rescued by his companions.
“Slowly easing avalanche danger, nice weather over the weekends after a bunch of fresh snow – that's sort of the intersection of a couple of really bad factors for us when it comes to avalanche accidents,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
The CAIC forecast put the avalanche danger at “high,” a four out of five on the danger scale, in the southern San Juan Mountains on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday following heavy snowfall. By Saturday, it had dropped to “considerable,” and by Sunday it had been downgraded to “moderate” as the snowpack began to settle.
Greene said CAIC staff members were in discussions Monday morning regarding whether the actual danger level had dropped as much as forecast on Sunday.
“I think we're always trying to do a better job messaging the conditions to people,” he said. “I wish our efforts had had a different outcome. I'm not sure if the core content of problems and danger ratings were hugely off.”
The Conejos County Sheriff’s Office led a search to locate Kevin Gray, 45, of Antonito. The snowmobiler was buried in an avalanche Saturday. The sheriff’s office received an S.O.S. message at 2:30 p.m. that an avalanche had buried someone, according to a news release.
Search efforts using snowmobiles and numerous friends and responders probing the debris field began Saturday afternoon and continued until dark. The search began again Sunday morning with trained avalanche dogs and continued until blizzard conditions forced rescuers to pause the search that afternoon.
Searchers found Gray’s body around midday Monday under what Josh Ruybal, a friend who joined the search, described as 4-5 feet of snow.
Ruybal confirmed in a message to The Durango Herald that Gray was not carrying an inflatable airbag or an avalanche beacon, which sends a radio frequency that allows searchers to locate a person in the event of a burial.
When the snowmobiler triggered an avalanche and was buried in the debris Saturday north of Mancos, his two riding partners immediately initiated a beacon search. According to a report submitted to the CAIC, the other two riders had been watching their friend and had a general sense of where he was located.
After pinpointing their partner’s location using a beacon, the riders were able to confirm his burial location by striking him with an avalanche probe, and began to dig him out of about 5 feet of snow.
Within 5-7 minutes, the two snowmobilers had cleared their partner’s airway. He had fallen unconscious but quickly regained consciousness once his airway was clear, the report said.
Greene confirmed that both skiers caught and killed near Vallecito Reservoir were carrying full avalanche safety equipment. However, with both skiers buried, the chances of a successful rescue dropped dramatically. Survival chances of victims buried in an avalanche are just 37% after 35 minutes and continue to fall dramatically as time goes on.
Specific snowfall and weather patterns may have contributed to all of last weekend’s events.
“Extreme southwest winds to create wind-thickened slabs in unusual locations, including in below-treeline areas typically not exposed to drifted snow,” read the CAIC’s forecast for Monday.
The danger level is expected to rise to “considerable” on Tuesday as more storms arrive.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
This story has been updated to reflect new information after the body of Kevin Gray was found midday Monday.
