PITKIN COUNTY, Colo. — Likely thousands of trees were toppled in a 3,000-foot long, mile-wide avalanche that struck Pitkin County's backcountry on Saturday, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
The avalanche happened in the Highlands Ridge area. The report said all of the Five Fingers and a portion of the K-Chutes ran. It destroyed an abandoned home that had set up avalanche defenses, however.
According to CAIC, the avalanche released naturally. There were multiple start points that met multiple feeder paths, growing the size of this avalanche. A spotter reported "the K Chutes ran as big as I've seen them go, and that was just a small portion," according to CAIC.\
The spotter reported the avalanche as a singular major event that connected across multiple paths, making it a mile wide or wider. CAIC said the avalanche ran the full allotted path of more than 3,000 feet and took out hundreds, maybe thousands of trees.
The debris from the avalanche ran uphill several hundred vertical feet, CAIC said, adding that it shot across the creek there as well, taking out trees on the other side too.
CAIC said the avalanche terrain is mostly east-facing, with a few slopes facing southeast and some northeast.
There have been more "very large" or "historic" slides this month than the previous five years combined, per avalanche officials.
Also, there was an extremely large, natural avalanche on a northwest-facing slope in Maroon Bowl, CAIC said.
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