Avalanche fatalities reach grim record

Town Crier “Briefs from the Region” (1) – 2/9/21

From Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort to Silverton, Colorado, to the Swan Range in Montana—it seems every Northern Rocky Mountain state has experienced an avalanche fatality this month. Following the West’s biggest storm of the season, fatalities ensued—the U.S. saw more avalanche deaths then anytime since 1910, according to SnowBrains. The most recent fatalities included three skiers on an area known as The Nose in southwestern Colorado and a snowmobiler in the Swan Range in Montana, where three more were partially buried. After a relatively warm and dry winter, the Montana Avalanche Center has issued avalanche danger warnings in nearly every mountain range in Montana and has stated that this is the weakest snowpack forecasters have seen in years.