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Monday, May 18th 2026

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Much of Colorado backcountry under avalanche watch as new storm moves in

A full scale exercise of the Avalanche Deployment program takes place on the top of Vail Pass in 2009. The program uses Flight for Life Colorado to rapidly deploy an avalanche team, which includes a search dog, dog handler, and a snow safety technician to the site of an avalanche where someone has been buried or injured. The exercise consisted of two different scenarios in close proximity to each other in the back country near Vail. The Avalanche Deployment Teams were deployed by Flight for Life helicopter into mock avalanche areas and raced against the clock to locate real-life buried victims. The scenarios lasted over 5 hours and had over 14 deployment flights.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
A full scale exercise of the Avalanche Deployment program takes place on the top of Vail Pass in 2009. The program uses Flight for Life Colorado to rapidly deploy an avalanche team, which includes a search dog, dog handler, and a snow safety technician to the site of an avalanche where someone has been buried or injured. The exercise consisted of two different scenarios in close proximity to each other in the back country near Vail. The Avalanche Deployment Teams were deployed by Flight for Life helicopter into mock avalanche areas and raced against the clock to locate real-life buried victims. The scenarios lasted over 5 hours and had over 14 deployment flights.
By | Denver7
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Multiple areas of Colorado’s backcountry are under an avalanche watch until noon Friday as the .

According to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, at 6 a.m. Thursday, an avalanche watch was put in place for the following zones: ,,,,Ի. The threat of an avalanche is listed as “considerable” Thursday, but the risk will increase to “high” Friday. CAIC said it doesn’t recommend traveling in avalanche terrain in these areas on Friday.

Heavy snowfall and strong northwesterly winds will build unstable drifts and quickly load up weak layers, CAIC said. By Thursday afternoon, conditions will be perfect for skiers or snowboarders to trigger avalanches, but natural ones are also very possible.

Any avalanches along the Front Range, Sawatch, Gunnison, Aspen, Vail and Summit County, and Grand Mesa would likely be large enough to bury, injure or kill a person, but not big enough to bury cars or destroy buildings. The avalanches in Steamboat and Flat Tops could be small or large, CAIC reported.

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