BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (KDVR) — The Colorado Avalanche Information Center said a skier was killed in a backcountry avalanche on Saturday.
The CAIC said the skier was caught and buried in “a small, but long-running avalanche” on Bald Mountain which is east of Breckenridge.
Summit County Rescue Group said the 31-year-old was reported missing by his girlfriend Saturday afternoon, a release said. She said she didn’t hear from him by the time he was expected back to his car so she called 911.
An aerial search was launched and the avalanche was located, but no tracks in or out of the slide were visible. Two SCRG members skied to the area and located the signal of an avalanche transceiver just after 11 p.m., the release said.
Five SCRG members and Summit County Sheriff’s Office staff recovered the body to the trailhead via a toboggan.
The skier is the 11th person to be killed in an avalanche this season, according to the CAIC.
All areas in the state under avalanche conditions are in a Level 2, or moderate, which the CAIC site says “natural avalanches unlikely; human-triggered avalanches possible.”
Other avalanche deaths this season
The most recent deadly avalanches were last month when one person was killed in an avalanche outside Aspen Highlands on March 19 and another was buried in an avalanche southwest of the Town of Marble in Upper Rapid Creek on March 17.
A 5-year-old girl who was caught in a roof avalanche near Purgatory Ski Resort with her father and brother died after she was taken to Children’s Hospital in Colorado Springs, the La Plata County Coroner’s Office said. She was buried for approximately 19 minutes before being rescued.
Sofia Peters, 5, was with her family from Scottsdale, Arizona when the avalanche happened.