A 41-year-old woman from Crested Butte was caught and killed in a backcountry avalanche Thursday afternoon in southwestern Colorado, according to the Silverton Medical Rescue and Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Sarah Steinwand, who founded Treeline PR in 2019 after moving to Crested Butte and working as a snowboard instructor, died in the avalanche, the San Juan County Coroner said Friday. Steinwand was a University of Colorado graduate and after college worked for Burton to create women-specific snowboarding programs, according the company’s website.
The CAIC said in a preliminary report that Steinwand was snowboarding and her partner was skiing in an area west of Silverton known as The Nose when they were caught in the avalanche. The male skier was able to escape, but Steinwand was carried in the debris, according to Silverton Rescue.
Staff at the backcountry Opus Hut nearby saw the slide and called search and rescue. Rescuers joined the skier who survived in the search for Steinwand. They eventually located and dug out her body.
The slide was in the Middle Fork of Mineral Creek drainage. Avalanche conditions were considered “moderate,” or level 2 of 5, according to the CAIC forecast.
The rescue efforts included 27 people from the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, Silverton Medical Rescue, San Juan County Search and Rescue, La Plata Search and Rescue, Silverton Avalanche School and a helicopter from Silverton Mountain, the CAIC said.
The state agency says it will have investigators on the scene Friday.
In 2021, three backcountry skiers from Eagle were killed in an avalanche on The Nose.
The fatal slide Thursday near Silverton represents the second backcountry avalanche death of the winter season in Colorado.
A 57-year-old skier was killed Jan. 7 in a backcountry avalanche north of Silverton off Red Mountain Pass. This winter, a total of 51 people have been caught in avalanches in the Colorado high country.
There have been four people killed in avalanches in the West in the last week, including a 46-year-old backcountry skier south of Lake Tahoe on Feb.17 and two backcountry skiers west of Bend, Ore. on Feb. 17. There have been 13 avalanche fatalities in seven Western states this season. Last season there were 16 deaths in avalanches in the West, including two in Colorado.