Avalanches Leave 10 People Dead in One Week

 Jan Wesner Childs

Published: February 6, 2021

Searchers dig a tunnel into 20 feet of snow that buried three victims after an avalanche in San Juan County, Colorado, on Monday, Feb. 1, 2021.

Ten people are dead after avalanches in five different states over the course of a week, highlighting the danger that comes during the peak of avalanche season and winter weather.

The latest incident happened Thursday in Colorado, where a backcountry skier was caught up in a slide near Vail.

Avalanches also killed a skier Wednesday in California, three hikers Tuesday in Alaska, one skier Tuesday in New Hampshire, three Monday in Colorado and one Jan. 29 in Utah.

Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, said such incidents aren't out of the ordinary for this time of year but recent days have been especially lethal.

"What I think is less usual is the number of fatalities in a short period of time," Greene told weather.com Thursday.

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Weather is the primary driver behind hazardous avalanche conditions.

"Seasonal snow covers are layered structures, and the layers are produced by the weather that happens throughout the season," Greene explained. "Could be a snowfall, could be a windstorm that drifts snow … each one of these events affects the snowpack and creates a layer."

When the snowpack is unstable, those layers of snow can fail and come tumbling down a slope. All four of the avalanches in the past week were triggered by people either hiking or skiing in backcountry areas.

In Colorado, there was an early snowfall in October followed by a dry period that weakened the bottom layer of the snowpack, Greene said.

"And then ever since then, as we pile more snow on top of that … we get more avalanche cycles," he said.

The avalanche on Monday in Colorado's San Juan County buried the three victims in 20 feet of debris. Greene said two different layers of snow broke loose – the one from October and one from Jan. 22. The fact that the avalanche ended in a steep gully also led to the deep debris pile.

"These types of avalanches are not uncommon in Colorado, but the severity of the avalanches in terms of how easy they are to trigger and how wide they are propagating, that is not normal," Greene said. "It is the nature of that underlying weak layer."

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The rash of avalanche deaths could also be related at least in part to Winter Storm Orlena, which moved across the northern part of the country from the West Coast to the East Coast during the same general time frame that the deadly avalanches happened in Utah, Colorado and New Hampshire.

Greene said research has indicated there could be a connection to avalanches that occur in a short period of time as weather moves across the U.S.

Emergency crews retrieved the bodies of the three victims in San Juan County on Thursday. Hampered by weather and the threat of more avalanches, searchers found the bodies Wednesday after tunneling through the massive snowpack. But conditions combined with the location meant more assistance was needed to pull them out.

"Today, we're waiting for the weather to clear out and for it to be just right to send the helicopter in to do the final retrieval of the three skiers," Dianne Gallegos, public information for the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management, told weather.com Thursday morning.

The operation was completed later in the day, according to an update from Silverton Medical Rescue.

Gallegos said temperature changes and storms challenged searchers, who were working at 11,000 feet elevation near the town of Silverton.

In all, 16 people have been killed in avalanches in the U.S. so far during the 2020-21 season. That's about right on track with the 27 people on average who died in each of the past 10 years in avalanches in the U.S., according to the CAIC.

But Colorado's already seen eight deaths, compared to its average of six.

"I think it’s safe to say that in Colorado, we’re going to have more deaths than normal," Greene said. "We’re there right now."

He also pointed out that there's still a lot of time left in the season.

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Greene said people should always monitor conditions closely before venturing into the backcountry.

"Just like you would check the weather forecast for a picnic or a hike, you want to check the avalanche forecast in the winter," he said.

Greene said trekkers should also educate themselves on avalanche safety and each member of the party should carry a rescue transceiver, a probe pole and a shovel.

"Backcountry recreation is a wonderful experience," Greene said. "But (people) should also know that avalanche safety is a very important part of backcountry winter recreation, especially in the western United States."

The victims so far identified in the past week's avalanches are:

-In California, 35-year-old Brook Golling of Ashland, Oregon, according to the Mt. Shasta Avalanche Center.

-In New Hampshire, Ian Forgays, 54, of Lincoln, Vermont, according to The Associated Press.

-In Alaska, 54-year-old Thomas Devine of Chugiak; 43-year-old Matthew Nyman of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and 50-year-old Edward Watson of Miami, according to state troopers.

-In Colorado, Seth Bossung, Andy Jessen and Adam Palmer, all from Eagle, died Monday, according to a statement from city and county officials. John Kuo, a 41-year-old Vail resident, was killed Thursday, according to the Eagle County Coroner's office.

-In Utah, Kurt Damschroder of Park City, according to the Summit County Sheriff's Office.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.