Snodgrass avalanche injures local boarder

Saturday afternoon incident

By Mark Reaman 

A 54-year-old local man was caught in an avalanche on Snodgrass Mountain Saturday afternoon. The snowboarder was caught in the slide near the top of Third Bowl and ended up with a broken femur.

While the boarder’s name has not been released, the incident sent the Crested Butte Search and Rescue (CBSAR) team to the site after a spotty cell phone call was received by Gunnison Dispatch about the incident. According to CBSAR president Randy Felix, the call came in just before 4 p.m. and the patient was transferred to the ambulance about 8:30 p.m. 

“The team did an amazing job reaching, packaging and skiing the patient down in a toboggan through difficult terrain in the dark while continuing to mitigate the avalanche hazards,” explained Felix.

Two Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) ski patrollers who are also members of the CBSAR participated in the rescue.

“I will again stress the need to be prepared, have extra layers and a satellite messaging device to make your emergency known when there is no cell service,” emphasized Felix. “Rescues can take time. This was a fairly quick response.”