Avalanche beacon training park opens in Colorado
No traveler in Colorado’s winter backcountry wants to be in a situation that requires use of an avalanche beacon. It is nonetheless required know-how — and the purpose of a park in the state’s central mountains.
The U.S. Forest Service recently announced opening its “beacon training park” for the season. It’s situated uphill from the Mountain Meadow trailhead, by the Eagle-Holy Cross Ranger Station in Minturn off the Interstate 70 exit.
Eight transmitters are buried under the snow and can be turned on and off from a small control panel. The self-operating system is open all day and every day.
It “allows for multiple search scenarios to familiarize people with using their avalanche beacons and probing the snow for victims,” according to a news release.
Eagle-Holy Cross District Ranger Leanne Veldhuis called personal beacons “key to finding avalanche victims as soon as possible, but they are only effective if people know how to use them.”
The park was developed alongside the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. It opened in 2020, ahead of what would be a grim winter in the state. Avalanches killed 12 people that season, among the deadliest seasons on record. Eleven died last winter.
“While avalanche beacons are important if someone becomes buried in an avalanche, avoiding avalanches in the first place is the best strategy,” the Forest Service’s news release reminded.
The state’s avalanche forecast is updated at avalanche.state.co.us
This image provided by Colorado Avalanche Information Center
shows an avalanche that killed an unidentified snowboarder, Feb. 14, 2021,
near the town of Winter Park in Colorado.
