La Plata Peak Avalanche Sue Purvis & Tasha Crested Butte Search Dog Team and Western State On Sunday March 21st just past midnight Chaffee Country Sheriffs office requested services from Sue Purvis and her search dog Tasha along with Western State College Search and Rescue Team (WSC) to respond to an avalanche that occurred on La Plata Peak, the state's 5th highest 14,000-foot summit. The peak is located 7 miles southeast of Independence Pass in northern Chaffee County, Colorado. On Saturday afternoon at approximately 3:00 pm three men on snow shoes descended on the west side of La Plata Peak after hiking up to the peak early that day. Two of the men were caught in the avalanche at an elevation of 13,600 feet. The avalanche cascaded down a chute for 1600 feet before it stopped at the base of the slope and spread out over several hundred feet. The debris pile at the base was over 10 feet deep in places. Two of the men escaped and one man was completely buried and missing. The one man who was partially buried was bleeding but able to walk out of the avalanche. He recently described the scenario in the Colorado Springs newspaper, "It was like being thrown down a flight of stairs underwater, constantly being pushed and tumbled and turned. I was being bounced around and pulled and pushed back down. It was light and dark and light and dark. I was just trying to breathe while it was light." The two survivors searched the avalanche debris until hypothermia and darkness set in. It took them six hours just to get off the mountain and down to the road. They reported the avalanche accident to the Chaffee County Sheriffs office close to midnight. The dog team and 7 WSC members arrived at the La Plata Peak trail head at 8:00 am. Sue Purvis and her dog Tasha where flown into the scene with a mission coordinator from Buena Vista at 9:30 am on Sunday by the St. Anthony's Flight for Life Helicopter out of Summit County, CO. According to Purvis, "From the air you could see a very long and narrow chute full of avalanche debris with a single snow shoe half way down the slope. Seven hundred feet below the snow shoe were the victim's ski poles." "I knew we had to work fast to locate the victim because of the quickly rising snow and air temperatures. The sun was just rising above the peak when we landed. The snow on the ground had no strength. I was sinking to my waist as I approached the avalanche." states Purvis. While the dog team was searching the debris field members of the WSC, Buena Vista, and Lake County SAR teams arrived on skis and snowshoes and by helicopter to assist in the searching and probing. A probe line was formed immediately. The avalanche debris thickness varied from 2 feet to greater than 10 feet. The victim, a 22 year old Colorado Springs man was located under four feet of snow near the bottom of the avalanche path. It was an outstanding coordination between the dog team and the probers (SAR teams) in narrowing down the search area which resulted in recovery of the victims within 2.5 hours. It was a great combined effort between all the searchers, the Chaffee County Sheriffs office and the Flight for Life Helicopter from Summit County. According to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, over 50 slides were reported on the day of the accident. The experts say that at this time of year, the danger in the backcountry varies greatly, depending on the time of day.

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