Montezuma County Sheriff Dennis Spruell and avalanche expert Dale Atkins surveyed the Sharkstooth Peak avalanche chute again from a helicopter on Wednesday, March 26. A ground team of four expert snowmobilers rode to the top of the mountain, above the slide area, for ground support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is still a large concentration of snow in the slide area, and it was snowing during the recon mission,\u201d Spruell reported on the department\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n
An avalanche buried Rob Yates, 47, in the high mountains near Sharkstooth Peak on March 5. Due to the severe danger and remote area, the search was called off two days later.<\/p>\n
Yates was part of a five-man group of snowmobilers in the Bear Creek drainage near Sharkstooth Peak when the avalanche occurred. Yates snowmobile and helmet were found, but search and rescue teams were unable to locate his body. He remains missing and is presumed dead.<\/p>\n
Spruell reported the snowmobile that was dug out from under several feet of snow on March 6 was visible from the air on Wednesday, and helicopter crews worked to airlift the snowmobile from the scene.<\/p>\n
Officials said they\u2019d meet with family members this week to determine best and safest options to resume the search for the victim\u2019s body.<\/p>\n
Yates and his wife, Tanya, were married in 1991. The couple has a 21-year-old son, Bradey Rey.<\/p>\n
Located in the La Plata Mountains north of Mancos, Sharkstooth Peak\u2019s elevation is 11,868 feet.<\/p>\n
Brian Lazar, deputy director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, said a final report on the accident is expected next week.<\/p>\n
He described this winter\u2019s avalanche season as worse than average, due to the eight fatalities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is up from our average of six,\u201d he said. \u201cThe season was not incredibly unusual, but we did see larger than normal avalanches that were more destructive.\u201d<\/p>\n
On March 5, the day of the La Plata mountain slide, the danger rating for the Southern San Juan zone was Moderate (Level 2 out of 5) at all elevations, according to the CAIC.<\/p>\n
The recent storm has increased the avalanche danger \u201cconsiderably in the north and south San Juans,\u201d Lazar said.<\/p>\n
Snowmobiling in the backcountry is inherently risky, he said, but safety precautions can minimize risks.<\/p>\n
Checking the avalanche forecast before departure; carry avalanche equipment, including avalanche transceiver, shovel, probe, and a partner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key is to choose terrain that is appropriate for the given conditions,\u201d Lazar said.<\/p>\n
Backcountry skiers also face avalanche dangers. On March 16 an avalanche injured a skier on Yellow Mountain near Ophir. Two skiers departed from Trout Lake and ascended the southwest slopes of Yellow Mountain with intention of skiing the Serpent Couloir, a northeast facing slope that descends into Waterfall Creek on the opposite side of the ridge.<\/p>\n
According to the CAIC, the avalanche danger was Moderate near and above treeline on that day.<\/p>\n
The first skier traversed into the couloir without incident. When the second skier entered, he triggered a slab avalanche 10 feet above his skis.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe initially rode on top of the slab for 30 to 40 feet before it knocked him off his feet,\u201d the report states. \u201cHe was carried through the remainder of the couloir, at times swimming to stay on top of the debris.\u201d<\/p>\n
While being carried through the upper couloir, skier 2 hit a rock, breaking his leg. He was transported to Montrose Memorial hospital by Telluride Helitrax where he was treated for a broken femur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Montezuma County Sheriff Dennis Spruell and avalanche expert Dale Atkins surveyed the Sharkstooth Peak avalanche chute again from a helicopter on Wednesday, March 26. A ground team of four expert snowmobilers rode to the top of the mountain, above the slide area, for ground support. \u201cThere is still a large concentration of snow in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[377,1130,60],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-121214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-avalanche-landslide","tag-missing-person","tag-montezuma-county"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121214","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=121214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121214"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=121214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}