A backcountry snowboarder was killed in an avalanche a mile west of Arapahoe Basin this afternoon.
The Summit County Coroner’s Office did not release his name pending notification of his family, but said he was a 20-year-old from Spring Grove, Ill., who worked for Breckenridge Ski Resort and had been lived in Colorado since November.
The man was skiing with two friends, who were behind him and avoided the avalanche just before 3 p.m., according to a statement from the coroner.
The two told survivors it took them more than 20 minutes to get a cell phone signal and they reached their friend, but he died later.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center said the slide happened in a steep gully south of U.S. 6. It was 150-feet wide and slid down about 800 feet.
“The rider was caught and carried for most of the avalanche’s run,” the CAIC said in a report. “He was stopped by trees in the upper portion of the runout, and partially buried.
“His partners descended the path and used their snowboards to excavate him before organized rescue arrived.”
Two days ago, there was a skier-triggered avalanche nearby, but no one was hurt.
The same area recorded a fatality in 2000, when Limbaugh Rowe, 21, of Breckenridge was killed while snowboarding with four friends in the out-of-bounds area on U.S. Forest Service land, which locals call “The Beavers.”
Today’s death marked the third avalanche fatality in Colorado this year. Nationwide, today’s fatality was the 21st this snow season, according to the CAIC. There were 27 last season.
On Feb. 23, 60-year-old John Joseph Kelley, Aspen-area carpenter, was killed in the White River National Forest about 16 miles south of Aspen.
On Feb. 11, 26-year-old Kellen Sams, 26, of Manitou Springs was killed when he was swept down Cirque Mountain, in the San Juan Mountain Range about eight miles southwest of Ridgway. Another skier, Dominic Franz Muth, 24, of Breckenridge, suffered a dislocated hip.
Avalanche danger remains “moderate” to “considerable” across higher elvations from Pagosa Springs to Walden, according to the CAIC.
