June 1 strikes again.
This past Sunday local rescuers responded to six separate incidents in just over an hour on Lake Dillon. Summit County Sheriff’s Office confirms no one was injured and no one ended up in the chilly water, although a few pontoon passengers took the long way home.
Winds that day were blowing 20 miles per hour. But conditions turned nasty when unexpected gusts over 40 miles per hour produced waves up to four feet tall.
This microsystem stranded two boats and a pair of paddleboarders. One pontoon was pinned near the shore at the Blue River inlet, where deputies arrived on the recpath.
“We were able to reach these people off the recpath and get them off their boat that way,” Mike Schilling with the sheriff’s office tells Krystal 93. “The boat floated around two hours before it was recovered.”
A second boat got beached near the Blue River and was towed into deeper water. Elsewhere, on an unnamed island near Frisco Bay Marina, two paddleboarders were stranded by the waves. Rescuers pinpointed them with GPS.
Closer to Dillon Marina a boat engine caught fire and spewed smoke. A canoe was reported missing and soon found with both occupants safe inside.
“If you’re waiting until the storm hits to turn back, you’ve waited too long,” Summit Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons says. “Dillon Reservoir demands constant awareness, quick action and respect.”
These dangerous, fast-moving storms, sometimes known as microbursts, are common on Lake Dillon. Many are finished in just a few minutes.
Last year on June 1 a kayaker and two canoers went hypothermic after capsizing in a microburst. A pontoon was swamped with 13 passengers.
In July 2022 a paddleboarder drowned in a microburst. In August 2014 during a regatta race 13 sailboats capsized, sending 26 sailors into the water.