One dead, one partly buried in Colorado avalanche: officials

[February 11, 2014]  (Reuters) — An avalanche capable of snapping trees or burying a car tore through a mountainous area of Colorado on Monday, killing one snowmobiler and partially burying another, a monitoring group in the Western U.S. state said.

The pair were hit in the 3.2-foot-deep (1 meter), 500- to 600-foot-wide (152- to 183 meter) snow rush near Kebler Pass, west of Crested Butte, a popular ski area roughly 220 miles southwest of Denver, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said.

There was no word on the condition of the injured snowmobile rider, or the time and cause of the avalanche, which held recent storm snow and hit a south-facing slope below the tree line, said the group, which was to send officials to the site on Tuesday.

Many areas west and south of Denver were under avalanche warnings on Monday, the group said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; editing by Ken Wills)

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