When it comes to fatal avalanches in the United States, Pitkin County has the distinction of being the deadliest county in the deadliest state.

So when avalanche forecasters at Colorado Avalanche Information Center report, as they did on Sunday, that “dangerous avalanche conditions will persist for several days” in the Aspen backcountry, it is worth listening to.

According to statistics from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, 37 people died in avalanches in Pitkin County between 1950 and 2007. During the same time, there were 36 avalanche fatalities in Summit County, 23 in Clear Creek County and 17 in Gunnison County.

In all of Colorado from 1950 to 2007, there were 281 avalanche fatalities. Alaska, with the next highest number of avalanche fatalities, had 173 in the same timeframe.

Ethan Greene, the director of CAIC, confirmed this weekend that with the fatal avalanche on Dec. 14 in Powerline, just outside the boundary of Aspen Mountain Ski Area, Pitkin County is now at 38 avalanche fatalities since 1950.

Greene said the high number of avalanche accidents in Pitkin County stem from the “strong mountain culture” here and the large amount of time people spend in the high country. He also cited the number of accidents that take place outside of ski area boundaries, where people legally access backcountry terrain from the top of a ski area.

“Sometimes people who leave the ski areas to go into the backcountry get into some serious conditions, without having the experience of someone who has been walking around in the mountains a lot,” Greene said.

Greene was busy Saturday and Sunday dealing with the aftermath of an avalanche on Saturday on Gravel Mountain north of Granby in Lake County that killed two snowmobilers. Also on Saturday, a skier died in an in-bounds avalanche at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

On Dec. 25, a man was caught and killed at an in-bounds slide at the Squaw Valley ski area in California. And on Dec. 14, a woman was caught and killed in an in-bounds slide at Utah’s Snowbird ski area. 

“All of them have happened at ski areas with extensive avalanche terrain and impressive safety records that span several decades,” Greene wrote in his CAIC forecast Sunday about the in-bounds accidents.

Because Greene was fielding calls from the media in the wake of the Grand County avalanche, and because his database technician was in the field investigating the slide, he couldn’t retrieve the list of fatal avalanches in Pitkin County that is kept in the CAIC data base.

However, it was possible to develop a list this weekend that showed more than 30 avalanche fatalities in Pitkin County since 1961. The list (see sidebar) was developed through accident reports listed on the CAIC Web site, on www.avalanche.org [1], in “The Snowy Torrents,” a compilation of avalanche accident reports dating back to 1910, and newspaper accounts.

The list reveals several patterns.

Only one report was found of a snowmobiler killed by an avalanche in Pitkin County, and that was in April 1975. Nationally, from 1995 to 2001, snowmobilers accounted for 33 percent of avalanche fatalities.

The people caught in avalanches in Pitkin County have included ski patrollers controlling avalanches, backcountry skiers traveling to the high country or skiing down steep bowls, and skiers leaving ski area boundaries to ski easily accessible terrain in the “mid-country.”

McFarlane Gulch on the east side of Richmond Ridge has been especially deadly, with three backcountry skiers caught and killed in slides there between 1971 and 1996.

Others caught and killed in local avalanches include mountain climbers, a Bureau of Reclamation worker, a man in his teepee and back in 1961, an Aspen woman skiing on North American on Aspen Mountain.

It is instructive, but brutal, to read the reports of accidents through the years. The tragedies have been devastating to family members and friends of the victims. And while we are naturally concerned about causing more sadness to family and friends with this recounting, we feel that the listing may cause people to more carefully consider the current avalanche danger.

As Greene of the CAIC said this weekend, now is a good time for caution.

“There will be tons of tempting snow,” he said in Sunday’s forecast for the Aspen area. “Temper your powder fever, though, and give the snowpack some time to settle. Safe travel in the backcountry will require careful terrain avoidance — steer clear of all steep slopes for a while longer.”

The CAIC also noted that “in Colorado, between five and six people die in avalanches each winter. As of today four people have died in Colorado this winter, and it is not even January.”

bgs@aspendailynews.com