Training comes as Colorado sees major avalanches, including first deadly one of the season
After an especially difficult weekend of avalanche conditions in Colorado and even a slide that buried ten cars along a popular path to Grand County, the training for multiple avalanche responders couldn't have come at a better time.
It's a truly collaborative effort to get practice for some of Colorado's more urgent and dangerous rescue missions: getting to people trapped in avalanches in time to save them.
Crews came from multiple different agencies, including:
- Alpine Rescue Team
- Loveland Ski Patrol
- Flight For Life
- Clear Creek Fire Authority
- Clear Creek Ambulance
- Clear Creek Sheriff's Office
Each played an important role in the mock rescue mission on top of Loveland Pass Tuesday morning. For Joseph Monseu with Loveland Ski Patrol, that role was hiding in a covered, dug-out snow cave, waiting for rescuers and an avalanche dog named Otis to come and find him.
"The further I got in, I lost light and I was kind of like, 'OK, I can definitely see how somebody starts to get claustrophobic and panicky,'" Monseu said. "Even for a moment, I was like 'remember where you are, it is just a simulation.'"
Thankfully it took Otis no more than 2 minutes to track him down and lead rescuers to him as soon as the drill began. Another buried volunteer was also patiently waiting for crews to find them, which they eventually did with a beacon. It's proof positive their tactics work, so long as they can get to the victims in time.
"You see fatalities in these slides and coordination really helps to stop a lot of fatalities, it is all about teamwork," Monseu said, referencing the inherent challenges that come from not only getting to the victim, but finding them and fast.
"You can see it; how many lives we can save with coordination and teamwork," he continued.
Tuesday also marked the first fatality from an avalanche this season.