Mammoth Mountain shut down all lift operations on Friday, Feb. 14, after an avalanche on Lincoln Mountain. Two ski patrol workers were caught in the slide.
Three people died in avalanches Monday — one person near Lake Tahoe in California and two backcountry skiers in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. The avalanche danger was elevated for most of Colorado’s mountains earlier this week but conditions have improved somewhat in some areas.
Two ski patrollers were caught in an avalanche Friday after heavy snowfall from a recent atmospheric river triggered a slide on Lincoln Mountain in California’s Sierra Nevada.
A growing number of skiers, weary of high prices and long lift lines at crowded resorts, are turning to the solitude of backcountry slopes. But the avalanche dangers are real, and skiers should go in prepared.