The Eagle County Coroner’s Office confirmed the identity of the Silverthorne man who died in an avalanche Saturday, March 7, south of Ptarmigan Pass in Eagle County near Vail Pass.

David Pickett-Heaps, 58, of Silverthorne, died in the slide. Emergency services responded to the Boss Basin area, an upper portion of Resolution Creek south of Ptarmigan Pass and near Copper Mountain, the night of March 7 for a report of a missing person. They found an avalanche with snowboard and snowmobile tracks leading into it, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

Pickett-Heaps’ sister, Rebecca Bryce, said the Canberra, Australia, native had always been “incredibly adventurous.”

“(He was) pretty hardcore in that he just didn’t stop,” Bryce said. “Very funny, very witty and just loves his people really deeply. And loved, loved Colorado.”

Bryce said she, Pickett-Heaps and their other siblings grew up in Boulder with an outdoorsy father who constantly had them outside hiking and skiing. Pickett-Heaps had a special sense of adventure, Bryce said, and was always well prepared. 

“He wouldn’t have just gone out and been silly about it,” Bryce said. “He calculated risks. He had all the beacons and all the, you know, apps on his phone and what have you.”

At sunrise March 8, Flight for Life helped responders locate Pickett-Heaps, who was deceased in the avalanche. 

Colorado Avalanche Information Center staff visited the site March 8 and investigated. The organization will publish a final report on the incident “as soon as possible,” according to the preliminary report.

Pickett-Heaps’ death marks the first avalanche fatality in Colorado of the 2025-26 winter season.

The center is warning backcountry adventurers of an uptick in avalanche activity following a storm that dropped more than a foot on most peaks in and around Summit County and other areas of the northern and central mountains.

“Since the last storm, we’ve seen a spike in avalanche activity and human involvements, especially in Colorado’s Northern Mountains,” the center stated in a post Sunday. “The fatal accident and several close calls in the Northern Mountains have occurred on slopes facing north through east, particularly the area between Vail Pass to Summit County through Berthoud Pass, which is currently the most dangerous area in the state.”