Although it’s late May, avalanche season is still far from over in Colorado. With Arapahoe Basin receiving up to 50’’ of snow in May alone, reports of avalanche activity continue to trickle into the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Mostly, these slides are of the wet slide variety but according to the CAIC “at higher elevations, storm and wind slabs are still being reported.”
Snow Failing on Layer from April
All of the slides are occurring on a weak crust layer that formed in April and has ceased to dissipate with the snowfall in May. The reality being, skiers remain susceptible to late season avalanches that could cause injury and even death. If the recent fatalities in Wyoming tell us anything, it’s that small slides can have devastating effects. The CAIC confirms this suspicion in their most recent report, which claims, “even if the slides are small, the debris piles on many of these avalanches are fairly large, certainly large enough to cause injury.”
Avalanches Close Independence and Loveland Pass
Just this past week, multiple avalanches reached the Independence Pass road, which resulted in the road being closed till plows cleared the debris. A similar but more frightening incident happened on Loveland Pass, when an avalanche that was measured at 3 feet in depth and 50 feet across covered the road on Wednesday. Luckily, nobody was hurt in any of these incidents.
