{"id":23471,"date":"2025-02-17T12:21:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T19:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/nearly-60-avalanches-reported-in-colorados-san-juan-mountains-during-valentines-day-storm\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:36:22","slug":"nearly-60-avalanches-reported-in-colorados-san-juan-mountains-during-valentines-day-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/nearly-60-avalanches-reported-in-colorados-san-juan-mountains-during-valentines-day-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 60 avalanches reported in Colorado\u2019s San Juan Mountains during Valentine\u2019s Day storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Natural
Natural avalanche activity across North-facing terrain on Coal Bank Pass, CAIC Forecaster Jeremy Yanko wrote. (Colorado Avalanche Awareness Center)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

In the midst of a winter storm on Friday, avalanche conditions were deemed dangerous from Craig to the New Mexico border, the length of the Western Slope.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the storm, from Feb. 14 to Feb. 16, at least 55 reports of avalanches in the San Juan Mountains from people who either saw or started one, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the past week across the state, there\u2019s been 156 reported avalanches, said Mike Cooperstein, the Northern Mountains regional manager at the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.<\/p>\n

As it warms up and the skies clear after a big storm, Cooperstein said they see a lot of accidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe on guard for a little bit, and don\u2019t get too excited when the sun comes out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, backcountry skiers caused a majority of the avalanches.<\/p>\n

Nobody was injured, though \u201csecondhand parking lot conversations suggest a party triggered an avalanche \u2026 while skinning and had been buried up to their knees,\u201d a report by CAIC staff reads.<\/p>\n

\"Sixteen
Sixteen inches of new snow in Silverton. (Colorado Avalanche Information Center)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cWild
\u201cWild wind texture. Lots of new snow and strong wind made some interesting loading patterns,\u201d CAIC Forecaster Jeff Davis wrote in a report on Feb. 14 of the Red Mountain Pass area. (Colorado Avalanche Information Center)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

That happened near Silverton in the Cement Creek Area, where \u201cavalanches appeared limited to storm snow,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s \u201ca lot of new snow on a bunch of weird surfaces,\u201d CAIC forecaster Jeff Davis wrote on Feb. 14. \u201cCold, weak snow lurks in the middle and bottom of the snowpack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis reported three avalanches<\/a> in the Northern San Juans: One was natural on Feb. 13, and two were intentionally caused by skiers on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n

Skiers intentionally cause avalanches to see how sensitive things are by walking or skiing across the top, Cooperstein said.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cShooting
\u201cShooting cracks around my skis were obvious in the new snow. \u2026 A few larger collapses were felt as I traveled, one remotely produced a D1.5 avalanche on a steep but short northeast-facing slope near tree line,\u201d CAIC Forecaster Matt Huber wrote on Feb. 14. (Colorado Avalanche Information Center)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt takes a lot of skill, time and practice in the mountains to know places that are safe to do that,\u201d Cooperstein said. \u201cMore people do it than they should.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the avalanches reported this weekend earned a D1 rating, which means they\u2019re \u201crelatively harmless to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A handful received a D2 rating, which \u201ccould bury, injure or kill a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two avalanches that received such a rating happened the day of the storm, Feb. 14, in the Southern San Juan Mountains.<\/p>\n

One was attributed to persistent slab, which is a \u201crelease of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab), when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks,\u201d according to avalanche.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The other was a storm slab problem, which is a \u201crelease of a soft cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow which breaks within the storm snow or on the old snow surface,\u201d according to the Sierra Avalanche Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most of the avalanches this weekend were attributed to storm slab problems.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt was a gift to get into the La Platas after a solid bout of moisture,\u201d Elliot Baglini wrote on Feb. 15<\/a>. \u201cFound 50 centimeters of supportable, top-shelf schmoo over dirt on south aspects \u2026 we felt consistent collapses, although no tree-shakers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most severe avalanche recorded<\/a> in the San Juan Mountains this weekend was on Feb. 14 near Crater Lake. It received a D 2.5 rating, which is at the high end of an already lethal class.<\/p>\n

Near Molas Pass, skiers \u201cgave up when we realized anything steep enough to ski was steep enough to slide,\u201d Rob Suminsby wrote on Feb. 15.<\/p>\n

One \u201crelatively harmless\u201d avalanche was triggered in the Southern San Juans by a snowmobiler on Feb. 16.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cCracking
\u201cCracking in the snow where the remote avalanche was triggered,\u201d CAIC Forecaster Krista Beyer wrote of a remote avalanche on Feb. 16 near Silverton. (Colorado Avalanche Information Center)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cNatural
\u201cNatural avalanche on north facing gully wall. These steep features on the edges of terrain traps like gullies or road cuts remain sensitive to triggers,\u201d CAIC forecaster Krista Beyer wrote on Feb. 16.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI remotely triggered an avalanche from around 250 ft away while skiing down a ridgeline,\u201d CAIC Forecaster Krista Beyer wrote on Feb. 16. \u201cThe avalanche appears to have failed on prestorm weak surfaces and gouged into old snow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSteep gully walls and road cuts remain reactive to human trigger from above and from below,\u201d said Beyer.<\/p>\n

As of Feb. 17, the San Juan Mountains are at a \u201cconsiderable\u201d avalanche warning. In Northern Colorado, much of the mountains remain at a \u201chigh\u201d warning level.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeavy snow and strong winds dramatically changed avalanche conditions,\u201d according to CAIC\u2019s website<\/a>. \u201cYou can easily trigger large, deadly avalanches throughout Presidents Day weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Backcountry users are encouraged to stick to slopes less than 30 degrees in steepness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWesterly wind continues drifting snow, building slabs, and stiffening slopes, making it easier for you to trigger avalanches,\u201d CAIC warns. \u201cWe could even see some natural avalanche activity with continued loading on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Anything steep enough to ski was steep enough to slide,\u2019 skier wrote<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[377,28,29,1309],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-avalanche-landslide","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-san-juan-mountains"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23471","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=23471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78138,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23471\/revisions\/78138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23471"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}