{"id":13516,"date":"2026-02-13T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-avalanche-information-center-issues-warning-ahead-of-presidents-day-weekend\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:38:43","slug":"colorado-avalanche-information-center-issues-warning-ahead-of-presidents-day-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-avalanche-information-center-issues-warning-ahead-of-presidents-day-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Avalanche Information Center issues warning ahead of Presidents Day weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Sawatch Mountains show that even with a low snowpack, Colorado's mountains can still produce avalanches. Colorado Avalanche Information Center officials are urging backcountry skiers and snowboarders to be extra cautious over Presidents Day weekend. (Courtesy of Colorado Avalanche Information Center)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Backcountry skiers and snowboarders heading into the mountains over Presidents Day weekend are being urged by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center to incorporate avalanche danger into their holiday plans.<\/p>\n

CAIC Director Ethan Greene said snowfall this week is expected to increase avalanche danger from Valentine\u2019s Day to Presidents Day.<\/p>\n

On top of that, the holiday weekend has historically been when the avalanche forecasting service has seen an increase in avalanche accidents. According to a Feb. 11 post on the center\u2019s Facebook page, avalanche conditions in Colorado\u2019s northern mountains are considerable, with the southern mountains \u2013 including the San Juans \u2013 expected to see a bump in danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Valentine\u2019s Day period has a lot of historic accidents, especially in the San Juan Mountains,\u201d Greene said. \u201cPeople have more free time to get out and hopefully do some winter recreation over the holiday. So we\u2019re just trying to kind of get people\u2019s attention and remind them about avalanche safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greene said it is paramount that recreators check CAIC\u2019s avalanche forecast before even heading into the mountains over the weekend. That, he said, will give people an idea of what terrain to avoid and what avalanche hazards exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that they make a plan for the holiday that avoids the most dangerous areas, and hopefully gives them a chance to enjoy some winter recreation and come home safely at the end of the weekend,\u201d Greene said.<\/p>\n

Historically, February is Colorado\u2019s deadliest month for avalanche fatalities. Greene said Presidents Day weekend in particular has seen more accidents than other weekends over the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe typically do get these big snowstorms that come through during this time frame,\u201d Greene said. \u201cThat coincides with this holiday period for folks where they have more free time to get out and have some fun in the mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

If everything comes together, more snowfall will be a welcome change for Colorado\u2019s dismally low snowpack. But Greene urged caution to those excited about the snow and itching to get into the backcountry.<\/p>\n

To learn more about avalanche danger and weather conditions in the backcountry, visit avalanche.state.co.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

snowfall is expected to increase danger <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[377,28,1310,1309,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-avalanche-landslide","tag-headlines","tag-safety-of-citizens","tag-san-juan-mountains","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13516","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=13516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19017,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13516\/revisions\/19017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13516"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}