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Eight rescued after giant avalanche

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 7, 2007

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 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 searching for other vehicles even though officials believe all have been found.

The avalanche hit between 10 a.m. and 10:30 local time and was about 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep, Stegman said. The area usually has slides 2 to 3 feet deep because crews trigger them before more snow can accumulate, said Spencer Logan of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

Despite three snow storms 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 wind, 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.

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.

Wynn said the pass was closed and would not reopen until today at the earliest.

Colorado has been digging out for the past three weeks, and crews in Colorado have worked around the clock to clear roads so residents could get to stores for food and medicine.

Agriculture officials also were trying to determine how to deal with the carcasses of thousands of livestock that were killed in last week's blizzard or starved afterward.

[Last modified January 7, 2007, 00:40:59]