Conditions still ripe for avalanche
By Miles Blumhardt
The Coloradoan
     The avalanche danger in the popular Diamond Peaks area of Cameron Pass remains extremely high, days after an avalanche killed a Fort Collins snowboarder.
Check Conditions
     For up-to-date avalanche information, call the Colorado Avalanche Information Center hotline at 970-482-0457 or check out the center's site at http://www.caic.state.co.us/.

     Avalanche experts are warning skiers, snowboarders and other outdoor recreation enthusiasts of the possibility of additional slides.
     Robert "Chris" Christiansen, 40, died Friday while snowshoeing to the top of Diamond Peak for a day of snowboarding. The Jackson County Coroner's Office on Tuesday ruled Christiansen's death was the result of multiple trauma to the neck. The death was the first avalanche fatality of the year in Colorado. "We're in a situation up there that in a lot of places it's just better to leave it alone,'' said Knox Williams, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. "It's struck once, and there is no reason why it won't do it again.''
     Christiansen apparently triggered the slide when he was 100 feet from the top of South Diamond Peak and was carried 600 vertical feet, according to avalanche center reports.
     The slide measured 250 yards wide and moved snow up to five feet in depth, completely scouring the slide area. Search and rescue crews found Christiansen buried in one foot of snow. They saw the tip of his snowboard, which was still attached to his back, sticking out of the snow.
     He was alone at the time and not wearing an avalanche beacon.
     The day of the avalanche, the center's forecast categorized conditions in the area as "considerable," meaning human-triggered avalanches were probable and that unstable slabs were likely on steep terrain.
     "I go up there an awful lot and have been watching the snowpack develop," said Shane Wayker, a Fort Collins backcountry skier who frequents the area. "There was a really bad layer of depth hoar (unstable granulated snow) near the surface of the ground, and with more and more of a snow load, it was inevitable to have a slide of this magnitude up there. I'm surprised it wasn't sooner.''
     According to center reports, two Minnesota skiers videotaped Christiansen from a distance as he snowshoed up the slope in a gully. Shortly after Christiansen went out of sight, the two Minnesotans heard the avalanche. Christiansen was found three hours later.
     Christiansen climbed a 37-degree slope, Williams said. According to the avalanche center, 90 percent of avalanches take place on slopes that are between 30 and 45 degrees.
     Colorado State University student Dan Samelson was killed in an avalanche in the same place Dec. 14, 1999.
     Williams said a smaller avalanche occurred last Wednesday just to the south of Friday's slide. But Williams and Wayker said the fatal accident and treacherous conditions won't keep others from risking a few turns.
     They agreed the safest places to ski in the area include most areas below treeline, including the south side of South Diamond Peak and Montgomery Pass.
     "People don't want to go to really safe areas; they want to rip turns,'' said Wayker, who skied the area Monday. "But they don't understand that that's not an option with the avalanche danger we have up there.''
     Wayker said the quickest route to access South Diamond Peak is not the safest. He recommended that skiers and snowboarders stay clear of the chute where Christiansen and Samelson were killed and to follow the ridgeline to the south to reach the peak.
-- © Copyright 2001, the Fort Collins Coloradoan

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