Avalanche buries Colorado pass

DENVER – A huge avalanche knocked two cars off a mountain pass Saturday on the main highway to one of the state’s largest ski areas, shortly after crowds headed through on the way to the lifts, authorities said.

Eight people were rescued from the buried vehicles and all were taken to area hospitals, said state Patrolman Eric Wynn. Details of their conditions were not available.

“Our crews said it was the largest they have ever seen. It took three paths,” Stacey Stegman of the transportation department said of the massive slide on U.S. 40 near 11,307-foot Berthoud Pass, about 50 miles west of Denver on the way to Winter Park Resort.

Wynn said crews were probing the area for other vehicles, but they believe all have been found.

Members of Oakwood Road Church in Ames, Iowa, who were on a ski trip, were among those swept away by the avalanche, including Darren Johnson, said his father, Don Johnson.

Darren Johnson’s vehicle was the only one of the church’s four-car caravan hit by the snow, his father said.

Don Johnson said his son was treated and released from a Denver hospital, while a passenger in his car, Peter Olsen, of Nevada, a sophomore at Iowa State University, was being treated for a broken rib.

The avalanche hit between 10 and 10:30 a.m. and was about 200 to 300 feet wide and 15 feet deep, Wynn said. The area usually has slides 2 to 3 feet deep because crews trigger them before snow can accumulate, said Spencer Logan of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

Despite three snowstorms in as many weeks, the area of the avalanche hasn’t been hit as hard as eastern parts of the state that got up to 4 feet of snow, Logan said. But the pass did get up to 10 inches in the past few days, he said.

Logan said authorities haven’t had time to test all slide areas, and he blamed 30 mph winds, with gusts up to 60 mph Saturday morning, for the avalanche conditions. The danger was expected to increase with the prediction of 70 mph wind gusts in the evening.

“This is a tremendous amount of snow to come down the mountain for us,” Stegman said.

Michael Murphy and his friends were heading up to the backcountry and to Winter Park ski resort Saturday when their path was blocked by the avalanche, which he estimated came down minutes before they got to the scene. One friend’s father was about 10 minutes ahead of them, caught on the other side of the avalanche.

“Initially we couldn’t get in cell phone contact with him so we were pretty nervous,” said Murphy, 20, of Boulder.

Murphy’s party and other motorists used avalanche probes and shovels to search for any cars that might have been trapped but didn’t find anyone. He said the two cars that were swept off the road were pushed down about 150 to 200 feet into trees off the highway.

Mile Cikara, who was headed to Winter Park to ski, told KMGH-TV in Denver that he joined others furiously digging out victims. “I along with 30 other people grabbed shovels and started digging to get people out. I had a shovel but people were using their hands, skis, ski poles, whatever, to dig out” until rescue teams arrived, he said.

The timing meant most traffic headed to the ski area had already passed through.

“Good thing it didn’t happen a couple of hours earlier,” said Darcy Morse, a Winter Park spokeswoman. On an average January weekend day, the resort draws more than 10,000 skiers and snowboarders, with lifts opening at 8:30 or 9 a.m.

The pass was closed after the avalanche but reopened Saturday night.