OPHIEL, Colo. (AP) – A 67-year-old man snowboarding alone in remote Colorado has died in an avalanche, authorities said Tuesday, making him the fourth avalanche fatality in the United States this winter.
The victim, Peter Harrelson, was a doctor and longtime resident of Ophir, a small town in southwestern Colorado, the San Miguel County Sheriff's Office said.
He was reported delinquent Monday evening after setting out on a backcountry tour in the Waterfall Canyon area south of Ophir. His friends tried to track him down that night but were unable to find him, according to the Colorado Avalanche Center.
Search and rescue teams arrived at the scene Tuesday morning and found Harrelson's body, the center said. Avalanche Center spokeswoman Kelsey Bean said the man appears to have been traveling alone.
After a slow start to winter, avalanche danger has spiked in Colorado in recent weeks. About 1,100 avalanches were reported by the center across the state in the week starting Jan. 11.
Conditions have since improved, and the area where Harrelson died was only at moderate avalanche risk on Monday. But the risk of accidents remains, Bean said.
“Dangerous conditions still remain. Reports of dangerous avalanches continue to occur,” she said.
Harrelson's death comes after three people were killed in avalanches earlier this month, all within a week of each other.
These include a backcountry skier's death in the mountains of western Wyoming, a ski resort in California that killed one person and injured three others, and a backcountry skier in Idaho near the Montana border. A skier was killed and a second person was injured in an avalanche. .
