Silverthorne – Forest Service officials throughout the Rocky Mountains will review snow-safety plans at each ski area to ensure they employ the most current scientific knowledge of the spring snowpack, as a result of a rare in-bounds avalanche that killed a skier at Arapahoe Basin in May.
Additionally, the agency and the ski industry are launching a new study of “wet-slab” avalanches like the one that buried David Conway, based on recommendations in an official accident review released Friday.
“We feel implementation of these actions will be an important step to ensure that similar tragedies don’t happen to other people’s loved ones,” White River National Forest supervisor Maribeth Gustafson said.
Conway, 53, of Boulder was skiing an expert-only run May 20 when the avalanche broke loose during a late-spring warm spell that snow-safety experts now believe contributed to the snowpack instability.
Wet-slab avalanches, among the most deadly types of snow slides, occur most frequently on warm days with warm overnight temperatures, when melt water can weaken the lower layers of snow.
While such conditions are not unusual for springtime at the resort – which boasts the longest ski season in the state, frequently extending until July – experts still are puzzled at how avalanche conditions formed in snow that had been compacted by skiers all season long.
“It couldn’t have been that different than what Arapahoe Basin has been dealing with for 30 years or more,” said Knox Williams, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, who participated in the investigation. “You deal with this stuff long enough, no matter how good of a job you do, something can always go wrong.”
The resort’s director of mountain operations had skied in the area 30 minutes before the avalanche but did not notice any signs of snow instability, according to the agency report.
Gustafson said the ski area had followed an accepted snow-safety plan – including avalanche mitigation – and performed an exemplary rescue, and she carefully avoided blaming ski-area operators in announcing the new efforts to focus on spring snow conditions.
“We believe Arapahoe Basin fulfilled the spirit and intent of their snow-safety plan,” she said. “The follow-up actions that we’re focusing on are not specific to Arapahoe Basin; rather, they’re intended to increase our awareness and understanding of wet-slab avalanches and hopefully reduce the risk and prevent similar accidents from ever happening in the future.”
Jim Chalat, a prominent ski-accident attorney representing Conway’s family, did not disclose whether a lawsuit would be filed. But he said that Forest Service “snow-safety standards don’t take into account high-altitude areas staying open into May with temperatures remaining above freezing.”
Alan Henceroth, the resort’s mountain manager, said the ski area would support efforts to study the phenomenon of wet-slab avalanches and offered condolences to the family. He declined further comment.
“There was no smoking gun,” Williams said. “I really don’t know anything that they could have done out of their normal routine that could have prevented this.”
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
