{"id":41598,"date":"2022-03-18T18:56:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-19T00:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/telluride-snowboarder-killed-in-avalanche-near-trout-lake\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:02:13","slug":"telluride-snowboarder-killed-in-avalanche-near-trout-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/telluride-snowboarder-killed-in-avalanche-near-trout-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"Telluride snowboarder killed in avalanche near Trout Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A search and rescue crew can be seen in the debris pile of an avalanche that killed a Telluride man Thursday in the backcountry of the San Juan Mountains near Trout Lake. (Courtesy of Colorado Avalanche Information Center)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A solo backcountry snowboarder was killed Thursday after being caught and buried in an avalanche southwest of Ophir, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.<\/p>\n

The slide occurred about 3 p.m. at 13,000 feet elevation in the Poverty Gulch area southeast of Trout Lake in San Miguel County.<\/p>\n

The victim was identified by the San Miguel Sheriff\u2019s Office as Devin Overton, 29, of Telluride.<\/p>\n

The CAIC reported that Telluride Helitrax, a local helicopter skiing and snowboarding service, was flying in the area when a guide noticed a large fresh avalanche. A single set of tracks was visible going into the slide area, but none were seen going out.<\/p>\n

\"A
A view from a helicopter of an avalanche that killed a snowboarder in the Poverty Gulch area southwest of Trout Lake in San Miguel County. (Courtesy of Colorado Avalanche Information Center)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Two guides were dropped off on the avalanche debris field and found Overton with a transceiver search, but he had not survived. He was buried about 6\u00bd feet deep.<\/p>\n

San Miguel County Search and Rescue, San Miguel Sheriff\u2019s Office and Helitrax responded to the site and assisted in the recovery of Overton. Next of kin have been notified.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cOur deepest condolences go out to the friends, family and everyone involved in this incident,\u201d CAIC said.<\/p>\n

CAIC forecasters planned to visit the site and publish an accident report in the next week.<\/p>\n

The area of the slide is in the Northern San Juan Mountains. Avalanche risk in the area was rated \u201cmoderate\u201d Thursday by the avalanche center, which is a Level 2 on an ascending risk scale of 1 to 5.<\/p>\n

The avalanche was unintentionally triggered by Overton, CAIC said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe avalanche broke deep, failing in old snow layers,\u201d said avalanche forecaster Chris Bilbrey in a report. \u201cWhile the chances to trigger a larger avalanche have decreased recently, this incident is a stark reminder of the kind of avalanche you can trigger today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A backcountry snowboarder was caught and killed Thursday in an avalanche southeast of Trout Lake. (Courtesy of Colorado Avalanche Information Center)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

An avalanche triggered in wind-drifted snow has the potential to break deeper and broader than backcountry travelers expect, making a more significant slide. Slopes at high elevation are the most dangerous spots because dense slabs lie atop weak collapsible snow layers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s fatal avalanche in the North San Juan zone is a sobering reminder of our primary concern \u2013 slides breaking 2 to 3 feet deep in weak, faceted snow below a stiff overlying slab,\u201d Bilbrey said in the report. \u201cYou may not get the typical warning signs such as collapses and shooting cracks in the snowpack before triggering an avalanche.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Multiple
Multiple agencies responded to a fatal avalanche incident Thursday, including San Miguel Search and Rescue, San Miguel Sheriff\u2019s Office, Telluride Helitrax, and the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. (Courtesy San Miguel Sheriff's Office)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Overton grew up in Ridgway and was an experienced backcountry snowboarder, according to an article by Venture Snowboards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When not working in restaurants in Telluride, he could be found exploring the San Juan Mountains on his splitboard, the article said.<\/p>\n

A splitboard is a specialized backcountry snowboard that disassembles into two planks and allows the user to climb up steep mountain slopes. The planks are reattached to snowboard down.<\/p>\n

When asked by Venture Snowboards<\/a> what his greatest accomplishment was, Overton said that \u201cnearly every day I can stand on a big peak beside a couple of my closest friends, with thousands of feet of great snow below us, as I spin in a circle identifying all the amazing places I\u2019ve ridden my snowboard before, all the crazy places I know I\u2019ll soon explore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overton produced Vimeo videos of his snowboarding mountaineering adventures, including one titled \u201cSteep, Deep, and Sensual: A Powder Point of View.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Five people have died in avalanches this winter. The fatality Thursday was the first one in Southwest Colorado this season.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Helicopter guide service spots slide, drops off guides to search<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[377,28,29,3321,1309,1660],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-avalanche-landslide","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-ophir","tag-san-juan-mountains","tag-snowboarding"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41598","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=41598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85029,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41598\/revisions\/85029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41598"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}