Accident Report

Peak 5, west of Breckenridge - CO

1 backcountry skier caught - not buried. - 2024/12/31
Lat: 39.5090097, Lon: -106.1120639
Backcountry Area: Vail & Summit County
Status: Preliminary Information
Published: 2025/01/02

Accident Summary

Observation Summary

Ascended a gentle east facing ridgeline to gain the Peak 5 Summit ridge. While ascending, I felt a few collapses, one of them propagated almost 100 yards to a ~12k SE face under 30 degrees. It was not steep enough to slide, but the propagating cracks were massive and appeared to reach the ground at the crown line.

Once on the summit ridge, I descended the East aspect, staying skier's right of a known avalanche path. I knew I could probably get it to slide. When I triggered it, I was sking across a section of slope less than 30* on average, but had a small pitch or two that was over 30*. The slab started moving very slowly underneath me. I was easily able to ski off it to safety.

The caltopo map attached shows the slide area. My location at point of trigger was on the map cursor. It seems as though the slab was cohesive enough to carry some lower angle terrain down for a short ride.

Pretty big slide. Crown face looked nearly 3 feet tall and I cant imagine a slide running much wider than it did today.

Avalanche

Caught in an avalanche
i
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Date # Elev Asp Type Trig SizeR SizeD Problem Type
12/31/2024
1 >TL E HS AS/u R3 D2.5 Persistent Slab

Snowpack

Cracking: Shooting
Collapsing: Rumbling

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