Skiers Evade Washout In 1 Of 2 Summit County Avalanches
By Anna Maria Basquez
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – Two skiers skied out of one of two backcountry avalanches in Summit County on Saturday. They were set off within about four hours of each other and reported about 10 miles apart.
The first avalanche hit at 10:22 a.m. on Mount Guyot, east of Breckenridge. Three skiers called to say they'd set off the slide and officials determined no one was hurt.
The second one was called in at 2:26 p.m. by someone in Montezuma who noticed remnants of a moderate-sized slide on Glacier Mountain, closer to Keystone, said Charles Pitman, mission coordinator for Summit County Rescue group. Officials did a flyover of a rescue helicopter and had two skiers call in who had skied out of the avalanche.
"They actually skied out of it," Pitman said. "It probably started, and they managed to make it to the side."
Both incidents tipped rescue officials to the weakness of the snow in unexpected pockets on a day the avalanche danger was listed at only moderate, he said.
"It's worth noting that today isn't considered a particularly hazardous day for avalanches," Pittman said. "There are certainly points you have to be careful of. If the danger's not high or extreme, it goes to show there are pockets out there people have to be very careful of. It can break loose. There was one just this week in Clear Creek County East side Loveland Pass. That tells me there's some pretty tender snow up there, and people out in the backcountry have to be very careful of the very localized weakness in the snowpack."
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Two avalanches in a day, Pittman said, have put him on high alert.
"I'm just sitting here waiting for the pager to go off again. It tells me things are tender out there again - a lot more tender than they were going into the weekend. My antennas are up big time. I'm a little concerned over these next couple of days."
He emphasized what happened with both sets of parties calling dispatch to say they triggered the slide is exactly what needs to happen in the emergency situations so officials know without going into a full-blown rescue mode.
"It's a little unusual we have two like this that were triggered, and the people that triggered them called it in to dispatch. I can't stress enough about how we like to see that happen," he said.
He said there wasn't a size estimate on the one early in the day, but the later one was moderate at about 200 feet wide with a two-foot crown at the top.
"It wasn't huge avalanche standards, but even that is big enough to capture and kills somebody. It doesn't have to be very big, especially if it washes you through the trees," Pitman said. "We had the young man caught on Loveland Pass a couple months ago, went over a 50-foot cliff and sustained only minor injuries. He was extremely lucky. Then we had the parties killed on Hoosier Pass (in an avalanche). It's been one of those years."
