A snowboarder triggered an avalanche in Tea Cup Bowl on Berthoud Pass this past weekend, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. The boarder was caught and carried in the slide. The slide had enough force to snap his splitboard on a tree. CAIC says the boarder was not hurt but he was lucky his splitboard took the brunt of the collision with the tree. The photos below are courtesy of the CAIC.
That broken splitboard happened to be a Weston Backcountry splitboard, made by Weston out of Lakewood. Weston heard about the avalanche and reached out to the boarder to make sure he is okay, and they are providing a new splitboard free of charge, similar to the one pictured below.
Weston has long been a sponsor of the CAIC, donating upwards of $5,000 -10,000 per year to help with their forecasting efforts. Sean Eno, who heads up Weston’s communication efforts, says replacing the splitboard is their effort to reach out to a customer who has been through a traumatic experience.
Sean says, “That’s pretty tragic when you get caught in an avalanche. And then you lose your board, too. We just want to remind people to be kind. When a skier or snowboarder gets caught in a slide, it’s not always their fault. And yet, people can really be critical and mean.”
In the past three weeks there have been two slides in the Tea Cup Bowl. A skier triggered an avalanche from 20 feet away on January 2. They were able outrun the slide.
The CAIC reminds everyone that the January 25 incident was a Persistent Slab avalanche you can trigger in wind-drifted snow across much of the state. You can find safer travel on lower-angled slopes and those sheltered from the wind. You can get a full avalanche forecast at Colorado.gov/avalanche