Justin Latici of Golden dug a fellow backcountry skier from a 15-foot-deep avalanche and performed CPR for 45 minutes in vain Sunday afternoon, according to the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office.
Kyle Shellberg, 32, of Golden was buried for about 20 minutes and did not survive. Latici, 31, was taken to a hospital with a leg injury after the slide at about 1 p.m. at Dry Gulch north of Interstate 70 near exit 216.
“They were skiing and triggered an avalanche,” said Bill Barwick, spokesman for the Alpine Rescue Team, which was assisted by the ski patrol from nearby Loveland Ski Area.
The avalanche was about 500 feet wide and ran for about 200 yards. Latici told authorities they skied down opposite sides of the gully, but when he stopped about one-third of the way down, he saw Shellberg swept away in the slide that also pulled him down.
Barwick did not know how deep in the 15-foot slide Shellberg was buried. The Sheriff’s Office said Latici found Shellberg using an emergency avalanche beacon before digging him out.
An emergency-room doctor, Rick Abbott, was skiing in the area when he heard Latici’s calls for help. He determined Shellberg was dead and skied out to find help, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The fatality marked the third U.S. avalanche death this snow season, with two in Colorado.
The first was Nov. 22 at Wolf Creek Ski Area in southwest Colorado when ski-patrol director Scott Kay, 41, was killed in an in-bounds slide as he and other staff were doing avalanche-mitigation work before the area opened to the public.
The second was Nov. 27 along the Utah-Wyoming border when a 54-year-old snowmobiler from Evanston, Wyo., Dennis Barnes, was caught and killed in an avalanche in the Uinta Mountains.
During last year’s winter season, 36 people were killed in avalanches in the United States, including seven in Colorado, the most of any state, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
The mountains continued to receive snow Sunday after a heavy start to the snow season from a series of Pacific storms.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
