By Tom McGhee
The Denver Post
DENVER — A 19-year-old Eagle County man was injured after he was caught in an avalanche as he skied down Bartlett Peak in Summit County on Saturday.
The man was backcountry skiing with two friends on the northeast side of the peak above Clinton Reservoir between Copper Mountain and Leadville.
“They were fairly experienced backcountry skiers,” said Anna DeBattiste, spokeswoman for Summit County Rescue Group.
The injured man, whose name and injuries the rescue group did not release, had started down the slope after one of the other skiers reached the bottom safely.
He made five or six turns down the hill before the avalanche broke about 50 feet above him.
The cascading snow carried him to the bottom, burying him up to his neck.
His two companions dug him out, discovered that he was injured and called 911.
Summit County Rescue Group determined GPS coordinates from the 911 call and directed a Flight for Life crew in Frisco to the scene.
The helicopter landed approximately 150 feet from the patient.
The pilot, flight paramedic and the injured man’s two companions carried him to the helicopter, and he was flown to St. Anthony’s Summit Medical Center.
The slide was 15 feet wide at the top, expanding to 65 to 75 feet wide at the toe, and about 500 to 600 vertical feet in length, Kevin Kelble, the flight paramedic on scene, said in a release.
There were rocks mixed in with the snow, he said.
All three of the backcountry skiers had avalanche beacons, probes and shovels, and all three had been trained in avalanche awareness.
There were seven avalanche incidents and one close call reported in Colorado in October, Spencer Logan of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said in a news release.
Nine people have been caught, three of them partially buried and two of them fully buried, Logan said.
Copyright 2009 The Denver Post