Avalanche forecaster rescued after being caught, hurt in slide

A Colorado Avalanche Information Center forecaster was caught and partially buried in an avalanche Monday on the Front Range.

Colorado Avalanche Information Center Deputy Director Brian Lazar said that the forecaster, who has not been identified, is recovering after rescuers extracted him from the field Monday evening. He did not sustain any major injuries.

“This points out that even professionals with a well-reasoned trip plan can make mistakes,” Lazar said. “Though we can do a really good job of reducing the risk of avalanches, you can never reduce that risk to zero when working in a backcountry environment.”

The forecaster triggered the D2 size avalanche — large enough to bury, kill or injure a person — around 11,800 feet on a northeast slope of Mount Bethel, which is two valleys east of the Interstate 70 Eisenhower-johnson Memorial Tunnels, Lazar said.

The avalanche occurred just before 2 p.m. as the forecaster was making his way down from the field site, Lazar said.

The forecaster was caught and carried a short distance in the avalanche before becoming pinned against some trees, he said.

As part of its field safety program, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center keeps tabs on its forecasters, so when this forecaster did not check in at the predetermined time, team members started mobilizing to go out to the site, Lazar said.

Contact also was made with the injured forecaster using a Garmin inreach satellite device.

“Any job that requires you to operate in the mountainous environment will carry with it certain inherent risks including moving through avalanche terrain” Lazar said.

“Lots of things have the potential to go wrong when you’re doing field work, from broken equipment to a twisted knee to, of course, avalanches.”

The all-volunteer Alpine Rescue Team received notice of the avalanche entrapment about 5:45 p.m., Dale Atkins, a decadeslong member of the group, said that he arrived at the trailhead about an hour later, just as other team members were heading into the field.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center already had staff members on the trail to the injured forecaster, and Alpine Rescue Group was close behind, Atkins said. In addition to a team going in on foot, Flight for Life was called to fly rescuers into the field.

Soon two rescuers were dropped near the accident site and made their way to the injured forecaster on skis.

The team that had gone in on foot had already dug the forecaster out, but he was very cold and suffering from the early stages of hypothermia, Atkins said.

By just after 8 p.m., the rescue team had treated the forecaster’s injuries, wrapped him in warm layers and strapped him to a toboggan, he said.

Darkness had settled as a team of about 10 rescuers started down the mountain with the forecaster in the toboggan, Atkins said.

Thick, breakable snow from winds late last week made the skiing tricky as the team side slipped down a steep slope, sometimes using trees as anchors to lower the toboggan, he said.

“We started down in the dark,” Atkins said. “We had an about 700-foot timber bash with some small avalanche slopes that had to be navigated, heading down through the trees.”

After about an hour, the rescuers reached the valley bottom and followed the summer trail back to the trailhead off Interstate 70, reaching the parking lot and loading the forecaster into an ambulance around 10 p.m., Atkins said.

Although avalanches involving backcountry professionals are exceedingly rare, they’re not impossible, Lazar said. Like any avalanche, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center treats avalanche accidents involving its own people seriously and will not release an individual’s personal details without their permission, he added.

Atkins noted that this avalanche incident highlighted the importance of carrying a satellite communication device, such as a Garmin inreach, for when there is no cellphone coverage in the backcountry.

Backcountry users should do everything they can to make themselves “searchable” to help rescuers locate them in the case of an emergency, Atkins said. That can include wearing an avalanche transceiver, a RECCO reflector, carrying a whistle, wearing bright clothing and having a satellite communications device in addition to a cellphone, he said.

The fact that this avalanche caught and injured a professional highlights the real risks recreationalists face in the backcountry, Atkins said.