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2025 Archive Index - All Editions

Helicopter rescues skier injured in CO avalanche

A Flight for Life helicopter airlifted a skier who sustained injuries on Sunday, April 20 in an avalanche on Grizzly Peak, according to the Alpine Rescue Team. 24 members with six snowmobiles and a tracked UTV responded Sunday afternoon to Grizzly Peak — a 13,433-foot mountain that straddles Summit and Clear Creek counties on the Continental Divide in the Front Range — after a 911 caller reported that a skier suffered a severe knee injury in an avalanche. The rescue team approached Grizzly Peak from the top of Loveland Pass and from Stephens Gulch. A brief window in the weather allowed a Flight for Life helicopter to get into the area and evacuate the patient to a higher level of medical care, according to the rescue team. No one was buried in the avalanche.
Source ... (Summit Daily)

Recent Avalanche Danger of 5 in Europe Was Extremely Rare

The April 2025 storm, which dumped over three feet (one meter) of snow in 48 hours in parts of France, Switzerland, and Italy, prompted authorities to declare level 5 avalanche danger in several Alpine regions. Contrary to popular belief, a level 5 rating is rare and seldom used. Most winters, even with heavy snowfall, the danger level rarely exceeds 4. When a 5/5 rating is issued, it indicates a crisis that can paralyze entire regions and requires the highest level of caution and response from authorities and the public. This rating is reserved for periods when massive avalanches are likely, posing a threat not only to backcountry travelers but also to entire mountain communities. The issuance of level 5 during the April 2025 storm highlights the severity and historical significance of the event.

In Tyrol, Austria, level 5 was last reported in 2014 in East Tyrol, with the previous instance occurring during the 1999 Galtür avalanche disaster, which resulted in 31 fatalities. In January 2018, Switzerland’s SLF declared level 5 over a wide area following extraordinary snowfall, while in January 2008, southern Switzerland and Italy’s Aosta Valley were placed on maximum alert after intense storms.
More ... (Snowbrains)

Massive Avalanche Near Chairlift at Zermatt, Switzerland

TRUCKEE, Calif. – A Truckee resident is focusing on the positives after an avalanche earlier this month left him facing a startling reality, unable to feel or move his legs in the moments directly following an incident in Tahoe’s backcountry. “This could be life changing in like a really really big way,” Rylan Cordova had thought, contemplating modifications to his house, whether he could still do his job, how to live and whether he’d be forced to find new hobbies. “Like what trajectory is this going to take me?” It was a question he continued to ponder while growing gradually colder, laying in the snow on the west shore of Lake Tahoe where the incident occurred on April 2.
More ... (Snowbrains)