As heavy snow blanketed the high country earlier this month, feet of powder covered a weak snowpack creating dangerous avalanche conditions that would result in multiple slopegoers getting caught in multiple slides  – one at Steamboat and another at Copper.

“The biggest allure was that no one had been on it yet, but that was also why it was dangerous,” said snowboarder Reid Kalmus of a powder filled ski run that temporarily opened at Copper Mountain on Saturday, December 14.

The following story comes from a phone conversation with Kalmus regarding an avalanche that occurred on open terrain at Copper Mountain. The details in this article are based on his personal account of the event.

During a day of fresh tracks on the mountain, Kalmus and a friend passed a line of people waiting for the rope to drop allowing access to expert terrain in the Lower Enchanted Forest area of the resort. Eager to have a first crack at the deep snow, the two joined the queue.

Kalmus is an experienced snowboarder with a taste for backcountry adventure. He knows Colorado’s snowpack well, quite familiar with mountaineering, ice climbing, and split-boarding. He’s descended high-altitude slopes around the state, as well as burly peaks like Alaska’s Denali and Washington’s Rainier. Kalmus knows his snow, which is why he was at a resort in the first place that day – to avoid dangerous backcountry conditions.

After a brief moment of waiting, Copper Mountain ski patrol removed the barrier to the snow-packed run, allowing an estimated 40 guests to enter the terrain, according to Kalmus.

As the line of slopegoers – mostly snowboarders – started to traverse across the slope, they struggled through what Kalmus describes as waist-deep snow. This required many of the boarders to unstrap their boards, post-holing as they cut a makeshift path through the heavy powder.

Skiers started to grow anxious, stuck behind the slowly moving snowboarders in the group. According to Kalmus, the line of people post-holing across the traverse created an unsupported slope – a circumstance that raises the likelihood of an avalanche.

As the scene unfolded, Kalmus witnessed a skier drop onto the terrain, escaping the crowd and safely disappearing into the trees below. Kalmus grew more wary of the potentially dangerous situation and made the decision to hop a wind fence and drop into the terrain, as well.

Shortly after hopping the wind fence, a section of snow estimated by Kalmus to be 18″ to 24″ deep started to slide. He was at the crown of this first avalanche. Though the snow was deep, Kalmus observed that the slope was not steep enough for the snow to move far.

Kalmus estimated that the slope was angled at roughly 30 degrees, just shy of the 35 degrees where many avalanches start to occur.

Then another slide cracked off. This one hit guests, according to Kalmus, partially burying three while pushing them into a wind fence.

“Everyone was kind of in a panic,” according to Kalmus.

Luckily for those mentioned by Kalmus to be partially buried, a skier on the scene had avalanche gear in his pack, able to use a shovel to quickly free those trapped.

In the chaos of it all, Kalmus had lost his friend, with whom he would later reconnect to hear that the friend left the situation at the sight of an initial small slide moments before Kalmus hopped the wind fence.

After ensuring that no one was fully buried and with no ski patrol in sight, Kalmus, too, made the decision to leave the dangerous slope. Others followed.

In the aftermath of the slide, Kalmus grew unsettled that the run was opened at all given the unstable snowpack. He feels that the opening was irresponsible on the part of the mountain staff.

According to the official statement by Copper Mountain, ski patrol received two calls on Saturday, December 14 at approximately 10:31 AM regarding an avalanche that occurred in the Lower Enchanted Forest area. Their report of the incident states that ski patrol responded immediately per protocol, finding no one in need of assistance nor witnesses in the area to give an account. No injuries were reported.

Upon investigation, Copper Mountain staff concluded that two avalanches occurred on Saturday – one in open terrain and one in closed terrain. They also urged those that witness an in-bounds avalanche to stay on scene in a safe area, calling ski patrol to report the incident and waiting for their team to arrive.

Kalmus noted that Copper Mountain’s reporting of the Saturday avalanches seems to be incongruent with what he witnessed to occur, sidestepping the detail that guests were on the scene of the slide and potentially endangered by the opening of the terrain. Copper Mountain may have omitted this detail due to an initial lack of witnesses. Another report of the event published by Summit Daily states that when patrol arrived, no one remained at the scene.

As reported by the Summit Daily, the avalanche that occurred on Copper Mountain in closed terrain may have been triggered by an individual ducking a rope in the same area based on a camera capture. This was the only avalanche that was initially made public, though it is unclear if this occurred before or after the slide on nearby open terrain.