Southern San Juan

Avalanche

On February 26, two skiers traveled up Parrott Peak in the La Plata Mountains. After a few descending turns close to the ridgeline, a skier triggered an avalanche from a steep, rocky wind-drifted rollover. The moving snow caught and carried the skier to the bottom of a treed chute. The skier sustained serious injuries traveling downhill through a mixture of dense and sparse trees. The injured skier's partner conducted a beacon search and found the victim partially buried, non-critical, with their head above the snow surface and airbag deployed. La Plata County Search and Rescue coordinated the rescue, and Flight for Life extricated both skiers out of the field. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center returned to the site on February 27. The avalanche was approximately 200 feet wide and ran 1000 feet vertically. The face of the crown was 2 to 3 feet deep. It released on a northeast-facing, below treeline slope. We will update this report as more information becomes available and publish a final report on this accident in the next week.