An early season report from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center has found that 12 backcountry skiers and riders have been caught in avalanches, three people have been buried, and just one person has sustained injuries, Summit Daily reported December 26, 2024.
Fortunately, no one has been killed in these slides.
The data was revealed after an avalanche report was filed about a slide that was triggered at Ptarmigan Hill, roughly 40 miles outside of Copper Mountain, on December 22, 2024. A snowboarder was able to escape the slide uninjured.
“A snowboarder triggered and was caught in a small avalanche on Ptarmigan Hill,” the accident summary states on Colorado’s avalanche website. “A motorized group in the area watched the snowboarder make about seven turns. Then, the snowboarder changed direction onto a steeper, northeast-facing slope before disappearing from view. The group watched a crack propagate above the snowboarder and saw the avalanche. They went to investigate. They found the rider uninjured.”
The weather was mostly sunny with a high of 36 degrees, calm winds, and no precipitation. These early season incidents are a reminder of just how unstable the snowpack can be at this time this season.
Just two days earlier, a skier and a partner hit a weak spot in the snowpack below the Jones Pass treeline and triggered a small avalanche. The wind slab was about 12-15 feet wide, according to the skier, who uploaded an accident summary.
“I was uninjured. I clicked out of one ski. Poking around the area could feel more of the same wind slab. Luckily it was small,” the skier wrote. “We were on a northerly aspect at Jones Pass. This terrain is frequently skied.”
Photo: CAIC
Avalanches can technically occur anywhere in North America. A video from the Mt. Washington Avalanche Center (MWAC) shows a snowboarder avoiding a small snow slide on November 29, 2024. The incident took place on 'Chicken Rock Gully' in Tuckerman Ravine, according to a report on MWAC. That slide happened at a time before the MWAC even began providing mountain weather forecasts for the season.
Natural snow on top of a snowmaking whale caused a manmade avalanche at Michigan’s Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort earlier in December.
The Grand County Search and Rescue team announced on December 3, 2024 that responders rescued a skier from Berthoud Pass after a slide caused injuries so significant, the skier could not ski out themselves.
Related: The Midwest Mechanical Engineer Taking Street Snowboarding By Storm