February 5, 1996
Information on Cottonwood Pass avalanche from Chuck Tolton and Nick Logan, 
who talked with Ron Hassell of Buena Vista.
(See additional info from Chuck Tolton and colleage below.)
Date & time:  Saturday, Feb. 3, 1996, 1430 hrs.
Site:  1-1/2 mi. S of summit of Cottonwood Pass, & 1/4 mi. N of Lost Lake 
(Colorado).
Details:  Party of two snowmobilers, Dan Colt & his wife (from Victor?), 
were in small trees near timberline below a steep east-facing slope.  
They talked about the avalanche hazard, & Mrs. Colt did not want to go 
any further.  Dan proceeded up thru an opening in the trees and broke out 
above timberline.  He headed toward the steep slope, but apparently did 
not try to climb the slope.  Instead as he turned on the lower part of
the slope, he caused a failure in the compression zone and triggered a 
large HS avalanche that broke at the top of the slope.  Victim was caught 
and buried.  The avalanche flowed into the trees.
    Mrs. Colt saw the avalanche fracture and traversed for her life when 
it looked the avalanche would overrun her position. (It did.)  Therefore, 
she did not see a reliable last-seen spot.  She returned to the debris 
and searched for about 45 minutes.  She found nothing and then headed 
down the packed trail and met up with a snowcat that does grooming in the 
area.  The snowcat driver radioed for help.
    At 1630 there were 4 people at the site randomly probing, but they had 
short probes only. (Don't know what kind.)  By 1730 there were 12 people 
at the site.  They randomly probed and organized into a small probe line 
but found nothing before quitting after dark.
Rescue, day 2:  On Sunday there were 45 people at the site.  They included 
4 patrollers from Copper Mt. (Chuck, Patty, TR & ?) with 2 dogs (Hasty & 
TR's).  All the rescuers traveled in 15 miles from the trailhead, most by 
snowmobile.  The debris area was 1/4 mi. wide and several hundred feet 
long and up to 8' deep.  The dogs did not work well & made no serious 
alerts.  The party broke into probe lines and eventually found the buried 
snowmobile near the toe of the debris.  The snowmobile was upside down and had
leaked gas and oil into the snow.  It was thought this may have affected the 
dog's ability to get a scent.  After the snowmobile was pulled out, TR's 
dog alerted in that area.  They located the victim about 5 feet away and 
5-7 feet deep (stories conflict on depth).
    He was lying stretched out, head downhill, with his helmet on.  Chuck 
said he had an extensive ice mask around his face.
Avalanche data:  HSAV4G Fracture was 3-15' deep, 1/4 mi. long.  Released 
on a corniced ridge abv TL (elev. unknown at this time).  Ran about 400' 
vert.  Slop was estimated at 38 deg. in start zone, faced either E or 
SE.  Debris in trees was 8' deep.  Victim was caught low on the slope, 
and he and his machine were carried to near the toe of the debris.  There 
were large hard-slab blocks in the debris.
==================================================================
Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 14:07:19 -0800
From: Chuck Tolton <tolton@ski-copper.com>
I was surprised to see my name associated with the 2/3/96 avalanche on 
Cottonwood Pass as having contributed to the report of the incident.  I 
was in fact on scene but did not speak with Logan so I suspect he is the 
sole author of the report.
A couple of things; the area had been severly disturbed prior to our 
arrival with dogs on the 4th.  I made the mistake of not focussing on the 
toe of the debris where I feel there is a greater statistical likelihood 
for a find than other areas of the slide.  Admittedly, there was very 
little information to go on such as a verifiable last seen point or the 
like.  The toe had been probed with short probes the night before but it 
was not until late in the day that the find occurred.  I would like to 
point out that in fact it was Tom Resignolo's dog Donner who made the 
alert in advance of the probe line resulting in locating the victim.  The 
dogs had not shown particular interest in this area or shown any real 
strong indicators in other areas either.  We attribute this to the 
presence of the snow machine in close proximity to the victim which was 
upside down and losing fuel as well as the fact that his dog was buried 
with him.  Who can say?  We have a high degree of confidence in these 
dogs and were surprised that they did't show more interest in this area 
earlier.
An unfortunate and avoidable tragedy none-the-less. 
Other patrollers involved were Steve Jones and Larry LoBocchiaro besides 
the three already mentioned.
Sincerely,  Chuck Tolton
===============================================================
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 20:24:22 -0700
From: Thomas Resignolo <trems@colorado.net>
I work for Chuck as a patroller at Copper, and it was my dog that made 
the find.  The Snowmobile was found after Donner alerted to the body and 
we dug him out.  Donner alerted after about 2 hours of searching.  The 
body was under about 5.6", but we were in a depression, so I would put 
the find at about 3.6".  It was a clean alert, right on top of the head.  
After digging him out, the smell of gas was fairly strong and a patroller 
named Steve Jones continued to dig in that direction and found the doo 
about 6' away about 20 minutes later.  Two hours is a long time for the 
dog, but there were many variables.  
TR