{"id":101737,"date":"2018-01-22T17:14:47","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T00:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/skier-dies-in-avalanche-near-red-mountain-pass\/"},"modified":"2018-01-22T17:14:47","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T00:14:47","slug":"skier-dies-in-avalanche-near-red-mountain-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/skier-dies-in-avalanche-near-red-mountain-pass\/","title":{"rendered":"Skier dies in avalanche near Red Mountain Pass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Abel
Abel Palmer of Durango died in an avalanche Sunday on the south side of Red Mountain Pass. This Facebook photo posted in February 2015 shows him with backcountry skies near the Continental Divide.<\/span>Courtesy of Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Durango man died in an avalanche Sunday between Silverton and Red Mountain Pass.<\/p>\n

The skier was identified as Abel Palmer, 27, according to the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

According to his Facebook page, Palmer attended Telluride High School, studied at Fort Lewis College and worked at Durango Sports Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just always one of those happy-go-lucky guys that was enjoying life and had a smile on his face,\u201d said Will Thomas, owner of Durango Sports Club. \u201cHe knew everyone here by name, and everyone knew him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The human-triggered avalanche occurred in an area known as Sam\u2019s Trees in the Chattanooga area, on the south side of Red Mountain Pass near mile marker 77 on U.S. Highway 550. The slide occurred on a northeast-facing gully slope about 11,200 feet in elevation, according to an initial report<\/a> by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.<\/p>\n

Ethan Greene, director of CAIC, said a team went to the site Monday to investigate the circumstances of the avalanche. It appears Palmer was backcountry skiing with one other person.<\/p>\n

Palmer\u2019s skiing partner, as well as other people in the area at the time of the avalanche, will be interviewed in coming days to help piece together what caused the slide. A final report should be ready by Friday, Greene said.<\/p>\n

Greene said the area is a popular backcountry ski spot. When the avalanche was triggered, some people went to help with the rescue while others alerted 911.<\/p>\n

Across Southwest Colorado, avalanche danger remains relatively high, Greene said. Because of dry conditions this fall and winter, there\u2019s a thin, weak layer of snowpack on the mountain. Now that larger storms are dropping more snow on top of the weak layer, it\u2019s more likely it will give out and cause a slide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of it as a building on a weak foundation,\u201d Greene said.<\/p>\n

The avalanche Sunday was small relative to slides that usually occur in the San Jan Mountains, but because of the weak foundation of snow, it was easy to trigger. Plus, it appears Palmer was caught in a gully, Greene said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe avalanche wasn\u2019t very big, but in the wrong place it can be very dangerous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It is the first avalanche death of the 2018 season in Colorado, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.<\/p>\n

The northern San Juan Mountains received up to 20 inches of snow in a 24-hour period last weekend. The avalanche rating is \u201cconsiderable,\u201d which means natural avalanches are possible and human-triggered avalanches are likely, according to the San Miguel County Search and Rescue.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur deepest condolences go out to the friends and family of the victim,\u201d San Miguel Search and Rescue wrote on its Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thomas said Palmer had worked at the Durango Sports Club for about 5 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbel was one of the biggest outdoorsmen I\u2019ve ever known,\u201d he said. \u201cHe really forged a lot of connections with a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

occurred Sunday on south side of Red Mountain Pass<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[377,13,1807,87,1562,1384],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-101737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-avalanche-landslide","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-la-plata-county-search-and-rescue","tag-red-mountain-pass","tag-san-juan-county-colorado","tag-u-s-highway-550"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101737"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=101737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}