Four skiers caught in an avalanche near Marble Peak on Saturday escaped without any serious injuries.
A group of nine backcountry skiers and snowboarders intended to ski north-facing slopes on Raspberry Ridge near Marble when one of the skiers triggered an avalanche while descending the slope, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC). Three skiers had successfully descended the slope and waited at the bottom when a fourth skier triggered the avalanche and was carried and partially buried in the snow.
“They moved into a piece of terrain that faces north, which is one of our more problematic aspects because it harbors very weak, early-season snow near the ground,” said Brian Lazar, the deputy director of CAIC, in a phone call with The Aspen Times. “Those northerly aspects have been particularly worrisome for us since essentially the late October snowfall.”
The skier that triggered the avalanche went further right than the first three skiers, which “propagated across the whole terrain feature and resulted in a fairly sizable avalanche,” he said. They were able to get themselves out of the snow after being partially buried.
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