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Latest reports: First Skier Triggered Avalanche of Season Reported in Colorado….READ MORE….

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Over the weekend, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) issued a field report describing an avalanche that occurred in southwestern Colorado near Silverton. It’s the first skier-triggered avalanche reported by the CAIC in Colorado this season.

According to the CAIC, on October 20th, two skiers were riding a north-facing ridge near Silverton Mountain’s Grassy Run. As one of the skiers crested a rollover, they spotted cracking and moving snow. The second skier triggered another secondary slide afterward. Both skiers rode away safely from the incident and weren’t caught by the slide.

This morning, the CAIC published a social media update describing current avalanche conditions in Colorado. The latest storm to hit the state deposited as much as two feet of snow near and above the treeline in the southern mountains.

“Over the past ten seasons, Colorado has averaged one to two people caught in avalanches in October. Nearly every fall, avalanches catch eager riders and late-season hikers off-guard,” the CAIC wrote. “Hunters traveling through the high country need to exercise caution on steep, snow-covered terrain. Please be thinking about avalanches if you visit steep slopes in the high country, especially in the Southern Mountains.”

The CAIC has yet to begin issuing its daily avalanche forecasts—those begin on November 1st—but in a blurb on its website, it urged backcountry travelers to begin reckoning with the risk of slides in areas that have seen a foot or more of snow. The blurb noted that early-season avalanches are possible on grassy slopes or steep rock slabs.

The warning is vital as skiing conditions near Silverton have looked excellent—and tempting—over the past few days. On October 19th, Silverton Mountain shared that over a foot of snow had fallen at the top of its chairlift, alongside images of skier Kurt Dietrich enjoying the bottomless-seeming goods.

Starting tomorrow, Colorado-based skiers won’t need to venture into the backcountry to notch their first turns. After receiving over a foot of snowfall, Wolf Creek announced this weekend that it’ll open tomorrow, October 22nd, with three lifts and roughly 30% of its terrain.
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