Four hikers were injured when they were caught in an avalanche on a Colorado peak, authorities said Sunday.
The Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office said it received a report of people being swept into a rock field by an avalanche just after 9 a.m. Sunday on Torreys Peak, a popular hiking spot near Georgetown.
The hikers sustained minor injuries and were able to leave the mountain on their own or were evacuated, Undersheriff Bruce Snelling said.
Some Colorado peaks hold snow well into the summer, and avalanches can occur at any time of the year.
Thirty-seven people have been killed in avalanches in the U.S. during the 2020-2021 season, according to the Colorado Avalanche Center. The latest was an Idaho climber killed May 13 by a falling block of glacier ice in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve.
That’s the most fatalities tallied in a single year since at least 1950, according to a database maintained by the avalanche center.
The previous record was 36 people killed during the winters of 2007-2008 and 2009-2010.