FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A 29-year-old woman has died in an avalanche while skiing in northern Colorado, where communities along the Rocky Mountains have seen record or near-record snowfall since September.
The unidentified woman from Fort Collins was buried in the powerful slide Sunday, authorities said. Other members of her ski party her dug her from the snow, but found that she wasn’t breathing, according to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office.
The woman, whose name was not immediately released, was declared dead at the scene.
The avalanche happened at Diamond Peak just north of Rocky Mountain National Park. A 2- to 3-foot (.6- to 9.-meter) sheet of snow, ice and rock plummeted 500 vertical feet (152 meters) over a wide area, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
The center warned of “considerable” avalanche danger Monday for the Rocky Mountain Front Range, which includes the area where the skier died. The center urged people in the backcountry to use extreme caution after several rounds of early season snowfall.