Tragic news out of Silverton, Colorado, where a 41-year-old woman from Crested Butte was caught and killed in an avalanche on Thursday, February 20.
According to Silverton Medical Rescue, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and the Silverton Medical Rescue team received a satellite emergency communications alert around 1:09pm on the day of the accident. The alert reported an avalanche accident in the area locally known as the Nose around Ophir Pass.
The 41-year-old female and her male ski partner were both caught and carried in the avalanche, though the male was able to ski out of the moving snow. The woman was critically buried, and others in the area responded to the accident and assisted in digging her out. Tragically she was deceased when located.
The Silverton Medical Rescue Avalanche Response team was dispatched to the accident around 1:57pm, extracting the deceased skier from the Middle Fork of the Mineral Creek area. Twenty-seven team members responded to the incident in total, coming from Silverton Medial Rescue, La Plata County Search & Rescue, and the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, in addition to some members from the Silverton Avalanche School, CAIC and Silverton Mountain. Silverton Mountain provided helicopters and crews to aid in the search and rescue mission.
“I want to thank all of the emergency responders who train hard and stand ready to respond to incidents like the one we had today.” – Michael Burton, Incident Commander, Silverton Medical Rescue
Our condolences go out to the friends, family, and community of the deceased at this time.
