SAN MIGUEL COUNTY, Colo. — A 29-year-old snowboarder died in an avalanche in Colorado’s Poverty Gulch area on Thursday, the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.
The man has been identified as Devin Overton of Telluride, who was snowboarding alone when the avalanche occurred at an elevation of 13,000 feet just south of Trout Lake, about five miles southwest of Ophir, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center confirmed to KMGH-TV.
According to the sheriff’s office, a local helicopter skiing and snowboarding spotted evidence of the avalanche at around 3 p.m. Thursday, and the helicopter’s crew noticed a single set of tracks entering the slide area, but none exiting, the TV station reported.
Telluride Man Dies in Avalanche: A 29 year-old Telluride man died in an avalanche today (Thursday) in the Poverty Gulch...
Posted by San Miguel County Sheriff on Thursday, March 17, 2022
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center confirmed that Overton, an experienced solo backcountry snowboarder, inadvertently triggered the avalanche, The Durango Herald reported.
“The avalanche broke deep, failing in old snow layers,” avalanche forecaster Chris Bilbrey wrote in a report, obtained by the newspaper.
“While the chances to trigger a larger avalanche have decreased recently, this incident is a stark reminder of the kind of avalanche you can trigger today,” Bilbrey added.
Overton was found buried beneath nearly seven feet of snow, both news outlets confirmed.
“Yesterday’s fatal avalanche in the North San Juan zone is a sobering reminder of our primary concern – slides breaking two to three feet deep in weak, faceted snow below a stiff overlying slab,” Bilbrey wrote in the report, adding, “You may not get the typical warning signs such as collapses and shooting cracks in the snowpack before triggering an avalanche.”
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