DENVER (KDVR) — San Juan County officials have identified the two backcountry skiers killed in an avalanche Saturday as Albert Perry, 55, and Dr. Jeff Paffendorf, 51. Both men were from Durango.
On Saturday, Dec. 19, two backcountry skiers were caught, buried, and killed in an avalanche in the North San Juan Mountain Zone near Ophir Pass in San Juan County.
On Sunday, Dec. 20, at 8:00am the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department, San Juan County Search and Rescue, Flight for Life Lifeguard 5 helicopter crew, La Plata County Search and Rescue initiated a mission to recover the bodies of the two deceased backcountry skiers from the Ophir Pass area.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) said Sunday both men were experienced backcountry skiers and believed to have skied the territory several times before.
On Friday, Dec. 18, another skier was killed after getting buried in an avalanche on the northeast end of the Anthracite Range, in an area locally referred to as Friendly Finis, west of Crested Butte. CAIC said the victim was skiing solo.
“We have especially dangerous conditions right now,” said Ethan Greene with CAIC. “This is not the landscape-changing event we saw in March of 2019, but it is the weakest snowpack we’ve seen since 2012.”
Greene said the conditions stem from dry fall conditions, which has created a problem that’s typically seen on a 7-10 year basis. The frequent avalanches this year are small, but extremely dangerous.
“What’s unusual about them is just how easy they are to trigger,” said Greene. “People are triggering them from fairly low angle terrain and on the sides of some of the steeper slopes where cracks shoot across the hillside and produce a small avalanche.”
In the past week, Colorado has seen at least 380 avalanches with 108 of them caused by people.
Since Friday, the state has had 132 avalanches, of which 49 were caused by people.
Nine people have been caught in these avalanches; three people didn’t make it home.
“These avalanches are generally small but still dangerous enough to hurt people, we’ve seen people get seriously hurt and three people die within the last two days,” said Greene.
Colorado Search and Rescue (CSAR) fear volunteers might be overwhelmed this winter. Some crews noticed a 200-300 percent increase in calls over the summer, with more people headed to the backcountry during the pandemic.
The problem is, CSAR hasn’t been able to train more people to assist.
“One of the challenges we face this year is that in order to bring on new volunteers you have to meet with them, interview them, through in-person training and it’s not something you can do virtually,” said Anna DeBattiste.
“Because of COVID, a lot of teams had to cancel new person recruitment events, and now we have a winter coming up where we need more volunteers rather than less.”
The organization has been partnering with CAIC to increase education efforts this year for new backcountry recreationalists. More signage has been added in the forests, retailors have been promoting classes to those buying backcountry gear and CSAR said it’s now more present on social media.
“Although the avalanche conditions are not unprecedented, they are worse than many people are used to,” said Green. “People are using avalanche-safety strategies that have worked in recent years, but current conditions require additional caution.”
The most important thing you can do is check the avalanche forecast before you go into the backcountry. Go to www.colorado.gov/avalanche or get the Friends of CAIC’s mobile app. Look at the current avalanche conditions and plan accordingly.
