MARBLE, Colo. | One person was killed after being caught in an avalanche in western Colorado on Friday, authorities said.
The avalanche happened near the town of Marble, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Denver, as a group of four people and two dogs traveled on snowshoes to a backcountry home, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said. Three of the people and the dogs left the unmaintained road they had been traveling on and began walking on a road that cut mid-slope along the side of a steep gully, triggering an avalanche, the center said. Two of the people were partially buried but able to dig themselves out but the third person and the dogs were completely buried and killed, the center said.
The body believed to the person who died — described as a 27-year-old man from Denver — was found Saturday in the lower portion of Yule Creek under nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow, the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office said.
He is the fourth person to die in an avalanche in Colorado this snow season.