Colorado Avalanche Information Center investigations anchor education

This story first appeared in The Outsider, the premium outdoor newsletter by Jason Blevins.

In it, he covers the industry from the inside out, plus the fun side of being outdoors in our beautiful state.

After several weeks of quiet thanks to an unseasonably stable snowpack, three men were killed in two avalanches on Feb. 25. 

The avalanches — each very different from the other — sent forecasters with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center’s team in the southern mountains scrambling. Two went way south, to La Manga Pass west of Antonito, near the New Mexico border. Two went to a low-elevation hill just above Vallecito Reservoir northeast of Durango. 

The two teams had contrasting experiences as they studied the avalanche scenes. All four of the…