A pair of skiers narrowly avoided disaster on a backcountry ski trip in the thick of a May snowstorm.
Yesterday, May 6, two skiers were bootpacking up the iconic Dragon’s Tail couloir, a southeast-facing route in Rocky Mountain National Park, when they noticed the snow rapidly warming. They decided to put their skis back on and descend.
That is when the avalanche broke and carried the pair an estimated 600 vertical feet on a southeast-facing slope, dragging them over a small cliff band before the two came to a halt at the base of the couloir.
Colorado Avalanche Information Center reports one skier lost a backpack, ski and poles in the slide. The other tried to deploy an avalanche airbag and failed, coming to rest with a laceration to the face and a dented helmet. Both returned to the trailhead shaken but otherwise unharmed.
Most of RMNP was hammered with heavy spring snow yesterday. Some areas received more than 20 inches in 24 hours. Avalanche danger was rated “high” above treeline, which is exactly where Dragon’s Tail lies above Emerald Lake, accessed from the popular Bear Lake trailhead.
According to SummitPost.org, the standard route is to bootpack up the couloir with crampons and ice tools. The skiers were one-third up the bootpack when the slide struck. Near the top, it shrinks to 30 feet across on a 50-degree slope.
On Sunday, May 3, before the storm, a splitboarder was carried 450 feet by an avalanche in a couloir at Woods Bowl on Berthoud Pass. The victim there was uninjured.
Preview image via CAIC. Article image via SummitPost.org from a different trip.