Vail Avy Spurs Closure Talks

By Bob Berwyn, 1-15-08

	Caption: With instability lurking deep in the Colorado snowpack, and a complex sandwich of tender slabs building near the surface, some skiers are choosing to feed their powder jones inbounds, like this skier searching for the bottom at Arapahoe Basin. Photo by Bob Berwyn. Check out more of his landscape, nature and mountain pics at his Imagekind gallery.

A second deadly avalanche in the backcountry east of Vail prompted the Vail Daily to raise the question of whether the Forest Service should close a backcountry access point used to reach the area. The access point is located on the boundary between Vail Ski Area and adjacent national forest land, and local papers have been careful to point out that the two killer slides occurred outside the resort’s patrolled terrain. Local Forest Service rangers said their agency has not discussed closing the access point and doubted that it could enforce a closure.

The big snows across parts of the West have resulted in widespread avalanches and a tally of fatalities that seems to be roaring toward a record number, as reported by the Vail Daily in this Associated Press story. Across much of Colorado, the avalanche information center is still rating the danger as “considerable,” meaning that human-triggered slides are probably.

Managing the boundary between the backcountry and lift-served terrain operated under permit from the Forest Service has long been a delicate issue in parts of Colorado. Previous deadly slides in “sidecountry” powder stashes have resulted in lawsuits against resorts and the Forest Service, notably at Telluride and Arapahoe Basin.

Regional Forest Service guidelines outline a guideline for providing “reasonable” access to the backcountry from ski resorts. On the ground, that policy is implemented differently, depending on local views. Aspen, for example, has a generous open boundary policy at its ski areas, although backcountry users are encouraged to use specified backcountry access points.

In Summit County, most of the major ski areas are surrounded by strict Forest Service closures. The only legal way to exit a resort is through one of the backcountry access points. Ducking a rope to get on to National Forest land is a violation of state law.

The strict Summit County policy stemmed from a 1987 avalanche that killed several skiers in the backcountry near Breckenridge. That slide spurred calls to close off big areas of the backcountry, even from local law enforcement agencies. The Forest Service resisted that pressure, but did agree to limit backcountry access from the resorts.