San Juan Mountains, Colorado – On January 5, 2019 a backcountry skier was killed in an avalanche in Upper Senator Beck Basin northwest of Red Mountain Pass in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado.
The preliminary accident report can be found on the CAIC Website. This was the 1st avalanche fatality in Colorado for the year.
UPDATE 1/7:
- CAIC published more details. The avalanche was a HS-AS(Skier)-Unintentional-R2-D2-O. It occurred on a planar slope on a south aspect at 13000′. The group was participating in “an avalanche safety course” when they triggered the slide. All six skiers were caught in the slide. That slide triggered another sympathetic avalanche. The group located the buried victim under 2.5 meters of snow. Photos are available at CAIC.
UPDATE 1/7:
- GearJunkie.com identified the victim as Peter Marshall. They note the avalanche occurred during an AIARE Level 2 course with the Silverton Avalanche School.
We will try to update this post when more information is available.
See Also: Global Avalanche Accidents 2018/2019
Read more about the avalanche northwest of Red Mountain Pass in Colorado from the following sources:
- TheDenverChannel.com
- Avalanche.state.co.us
- DenverPost.com
- The-Journal.com
- Denver.CBSLocal.com
- Avalanche.org
