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Stay safe this weekend and stop the ‘alarming avalanche trend’ in Colorado

This photo of an avalanche on Buffalo Pass was captured on Jan. 10, 2023.
Thomas Lindsey/Colorado Avalanche Information Center

Over the past three weekends, there have been more than 850 avalanches and four fatalities in Colorado.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend is historically a busy ski and backcountry weekend and Friends of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center is urging people to stay safe.

According to the Thursday, Jan. 12, forecast from the avalanche center, avalanche danger is considerable, or a three on the one to five scale.



The forecast warns recreators that much of the area surrounding Steamboat is the deepest area in the northern mountains and large and deadly avalanches can be triggered on west through north to south-facing slopes.

“Avalanches can break deeper than you anticipate and wrap around terrain features making escape impossible,” reads the forecast, which can be found at avalanche.state.co.us. “There may not be any signs of instability before you trigger an avalanche, or you might travel the same slope multiple times without incident until you trigger an avalanche. You are most likely to trigger an avalanche from a shallower area of the snowpack like near exposed rocks, shrubs, or grass.”



The avalanche center encourages people to find safe slopes that are less than 30 degrees and not connected to steeper slopes above.


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