FORT COLLINS — A 29-year-old Fort Collins woman died Sunday in an avalanche while backcountry skiing in northern Colorado.
It’s the first avalanche death this winter season in Colorado, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said the avalanche occurred about 2:45 p.m. Sunday near Cameron Pass along Colorado 14.
The victim was not breathing when found by a person who had been skiing with her and others who helped to dig her out from the snow. But she was declared dead at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.
The name of the victim was not immediately released. The avalanche that killed her described as 2 to 3 feet deep, very wide and running close to 500 feet vertically, according to the CAIC.
The death comes on the heels of a 2018-2019 snow season in Colorado that killed eight people, two more fatalities above the average for avalanche deaths the state sees every season.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center fielded reports of 46 people caught in avalanches in 2018, 16 of them who were buried. That is the highest number of people caught and buried the agency has ever recorded.
The Colorado Sun contributed to this report.