The public can empathize with the emotional shock felt by a snowmobile group that lost two members to an avalanche last weekend near Cameron Pass, but the group shouldn’t have taken their machines inside a wilderness area.
The fact that the U.S. Forest Service reportedly hadn’t erected obvious signs at the trailhead wasn’t a solid excuse – one of the essential items in any outdoor survival kit is a map, and a good map should have shown the wilderness boundary. That said, the snowmobilers would have been in danger even if the slope they were on had been outside the Neota Wilderness.
Over New Year’s, strong winds and heavy snow created considerable-to-high avalanche hazard even below timberline nearly everywhere in our mountains, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center reported at the time. Thus, slopes that usually don’t have snow slides were risky places to be on that particular day. High marking (riding a snowmobile up a slope as far as it can go without stalling) just wasn’t safe given the conditions.
For decades, Colorado carried the unwanted reputation of having more avalanche deaths than any other state in the country. (Utah last year claimed that notoriety.) But in recent years, the average number of annual Colorado avalanche deaths has fallen, despite a dramatic rise in the number of people taking part in winter outdoor recreation.
In the same period, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, part of the state’s Geological Survey, undertook concerted efforts to teach the public to avoid hazards. The legislature helped by allocating a small portion of the state’s severance tax to the avalanche center, enabling experts to better analyze conditions, make the information publicly available and, most important, teach the public to recognize and avoid danger.
But the fatal slide near Cameron Pass puts Colorado nearer to a worrisome national trend: More snowmobilers are dying in snow slides. In fact, snowmobilers account for more U.S. avalanche deaths (44 percent) than backcountry skiers (24 percent), snowboarders (14 percent) and mountain climbers (5 percent) combined. No snowmobilers died in Colorado avalanches last year, but account for two of the four deaths so far this winter. Clearly, clubs, guide services and retailers need to better educate members and clients.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center’s classes are free and held at numerous locations statewide. The center’s Web page is geosurvey.state.co.us/avalanche. The metro-area number for its daily forecasts is 303-275-5360.
