Following a series of winter storms, an avalanche in the mountains of southwestern Colorado killed a snowboarder on Thursday, making him the fourth person to die in an avalanche in the West this week.
According to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, a man who was skiing with the snowboarder managed to escape the snow fall, but the snowboarder was trapped in the avalanche rubble in the backcountry close to Silverton.
According to the report, employees of a neighboring backcountry hut saw the avalanche, called rescuers, and assisted the skier in excavating the victim from the rubble.
Avalanches on Monday claimed the lives of three people: two backcountry skiers in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains and one person near Lake Tahoe in California.
Earlier this week, the majority of Colorado’s mountains were at high risk of avalanches, but in certain places, the situation has considerably eased.
The Associated Press
