As we rolled into the New Year, the skies were clearing from a massive storm cycle. It was the snowiest holiday period in years, the kind of weather that locals in a ski town hope…
Colorado's 2020-21 avalanche season was tied for deadliest. It's helping forecasters hone warnings. – The Journal the-journal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from the-journal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A once-in-a-decade layer of rotten snow in the mountains combined with unprecedented traffic in the backcountry made the 2020-21 avalanche season the deadliest in many years.
The 37 deaths across the .
Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun
By “keeping up with the Jones,” the Crested Butte Avalanche Center has helped keep fatalities few even as advanced equipment and opportunity send backcountry numbers soaring.
A few days after the ski hill closed in March, Than Acuff went for a backcountry tour up the popular Schuylkill Ridge.
“It was mind-blowing. Shoot-the-lock-off zero backcountry protocol. Total bedlam,” the longtime local journalist and executive director of the Crested Butte Avalanche Center said. “We were breaking trail and there was like a conga line behind us. People were dropping in on top of each other. I was skiing down and this guy goes flying by me on his snowboard, holding his dog. At that point, I was like ‘Wow. We need to get ahead of this curve.’”
Three skiers were killed by avalanches in Colorado last weekend, according to reports.
Three skiers were killed by avalanches in Colorado last weekend, according to reports. Albert Perry, 55, and Dr. Jeff Paffendorf, 51, who are both from Durango, Colorado, were reported missing after they didn t return from a trip on Saturday evening, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said. They were spotted Dec. 20, the day after they went missing, during a search rescue near a large avalanche and ski tracks in an area that is locally known as the Battleship, the CAIC wrote.
Just days before, in another area, a third person, later identified as Jeff Schneider, was found in the Gunnison zone of the mountain on Friday, The New York Post reported.