Aspen

Avalanche

A large avalanche was triggered by a group of skiers around 12:45 PM on February 8, 2023 on an east-southeast-facing slope above the treeline in the backcountry terrain adjacent to Aspen Snowmass. The skiers "made three hard ski cuts on the way to the line" and the first two skiers descended the slope one at a time and waited for skier 3 out from underneath the slope they just skied. Skier 3 reports seeing shooting cracks cross the whole face instantly on his second turn and he skied as fast as he could toward "my plan A exit to the left." All 3 skiers were unharmed in the avalanche. Skier 3 stated in hindsight that the line they skied was "generally not worth it and a bad decision" since it was a shallow southeasterly-facing slope and to get back into the resort they had to cross numerous avalanche paths of similar aspects that had not slid yet. Skier 3 reports seeing dozens of ski tracks descending similar aspects above where they had just traversed with none of them triggering an avalanche. Skier 3 also reports having "a bad gut feeling and decided to ski it as fast as possible and get out of the path asap. Always trust your gut if it says things are bad." Although there has been very little avalanche activity in the Elks recently this avalanche highlights the current Persistent Slab avalanche problem. You could be the third or maybe even the 50th person to ski a slope before you find the trigger point and cause a large avalanche that can break near the ground and take the whole season's snowpack down on top of you.