Three avalanches large enough to kill someone caught six backcountry travelers on Saturday, Jan. 27, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

Luckily, no one was killed and only minor injuries were reported, Colorado Avalanche Information Center public information officer Kelsy Been said. The recent slides come after avalanche experts issued a special warning ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend as officials began to see “a dramatic uptick in avalanche danger.” Last week, the center warned of skiers, snowboarders and even moose triggering dangerous remote avalanches across Colorado.

“The low-probability, high-consequence events — that’s what we’re looking at right now,” Been said. “There are more people recreating. There were likely hundreds of people out in the backcountry this weekend.”

Accounts from people caught in avalanches last weekend indicate that there were no obvious signs of instability before the slides, according to the state avalanche agency’s forecasts for the central and northern mountains.

The regional forecasts state that this week will bring bluebird, warm days with cold, clear nights and plenty of snow for backcountry recreation — but with the current snowpack structure it is also the “perfect recipe to get overly excited.”

Alpine Rescue Team public information officer Dawn Wilson was among the rescue volunteers who responded to Hagar Mountain, where an avalanche caught four people Saturday. Wilson said the backcountry travelers the rescue team helped from the field described being surprised by the avalanche that broke above them before sweeping them down the mountain.

One of the four had a leg injury, but all four were “pretty banged up,” Wilson said. Two indicated they were going to seek medical attention at the emergency room, Wilson said, adding that the avalanche broke a splitboard. 

The three skiers and one snowboarder were ascending the southeast face for a second lap when they triggered a persistent-slab avalanche that was large enough to snap trees or bury and destroy a car, according to an avalanche field report.

Wilson recalled one person describing “a lightning bolt crack that just went to the summit” before they began “kind of boogie boarding” as the avalanche swept down. When the avalanche stopped, the four were relieved and surprised to find that nobody had been fully buried or severely injured, she said. 

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“It’s Colorado. Avalanches don’t mess around,” Wilson said. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what knowledge you have. It’s not a black-and-white situation.”

Also Saturday, a skier triggered an avalanche before being carried 50 feet on the east aspect of Meaden Peak north of Steamboat Springs. An avalanche in the backcountry near Telluride that same day caught a splitboarder, according to field reports.

Low-probability, high-consequence events occur unexpectedly and often have devastating or fatal consequences, according to state avalanche forecasts. These types of events, though, are hard to learn from because they don’t happen very often, so backcountry users might enter steep terrain for years before triggering one of these dangerous slides, the forecasts state.

Tracks on or nearby a slope don’t mean that it is safe to travel on or near that slope, according to the Avalanche Information Center. Avalanches are more likely to be triggered where the snowpack is generally shallower or on rocky, uneven slopes.

Conditions remained moderate in the central and northern mountains as of the forecast issued Sunday, Jan. 28, but low-probability, high-consequence events remain possible throughout the state.

“We’ve really seen an uptick in large avalanches since that storm cycle over MLK weekend,” Been said.

The vast majority of avalanche deaths in Colorado — some 80% — occur when conditions are moderate or considerable, according to the Avalanche Information Center. About 40% of avalanche fatalities in the state occur during moderate conditions.

Been said that conditions similar to the last few days will likely continue through the week before more significant snow arrives this weekend. It is recommended everyone traveling in the backcountry carry the 10 essentials as well as a transceiver, probe and shovel.

“We’re definitely still worried about more incidents in the coming days,” Been said. “We hope people read the forecast, have some training and are carrying rescue equipment and know how to use it.”