5 snowboarders killed
Clear Creek County Sheriff Don Krueger said that search and rescue crews recovered the men's bodies from a backcountry area on Loveland Pass several hours after Saturday afternoon's slide, which was about 600 feet wide and eight feet deep. All of the men were equipped with avalanche beacons.
The sheriff on Sunday identified the victims as Christopher Peters, 32, of Lakewood; Joseph Timlin, 32, of Gypsum; Ryan Novack, 33, of Boulder; Ian Lanphere, 36, of Crested Butte; and Rick Gaukel, 33, of Estes Park. A sixth snowboarder, whose name and condition have not been released, called for help after digging out of the avalanche.
The slide occurred on a spring weekend when many skiers and snowboarders took advantage of late season snowfall in the Rocky Mountains. Loveland Pass, which rises to an elevation of 11,990 feet about 60 miles west of Denver, is popular among backcountry skiers and snowboarders, but dangerous conditions are common in the area even in the spring.
Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, said a systemic weakness in the snowpack was exacerbated by heavy snow that fell on the pass over the past week and a half.
"It's been something that's been giving us problems all winter," he said. "But the snow storms that have been coming in this spring have just created a large slab on top of it."
Forecasters for the center warned skiers and hikers again Sunday of potentially dangerous backcountry conditions, saying the new snow has pushed the old snowpack to the breaking point.
On Thursday, a 38-year-old snowboarder died in an avalanche south of Colorado's Vail Pass. Eagle County sheriff's officials said the man and another snowboarder likely triggered the slide after a friend on a snowmobile dropped them off at the top of Avalanche Bowl.
According to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, 11 people have died in avalanches in Colorado this winter season.
Greene said Saturday's was the deadliest in Colorado since 1962, when seven people were killed in a slide that wiped out several homes in the town of Twin Lakes near Independence Pass.
U.S. avalanche deaths climbed steeply after 1990, averaging 24 a year, as new gear became available for backcountry travel. Until then, avalanches rarely claimed more than a handful of lives each season in records going back to 1950.
