A Colorado skier has died and two other people were injured after getting caught in a massive avalanche in western Colorado.
The body of
Joel Shute, 36,
of Glenwood Springs, was recovered Saturday afternoon, authorities said.
Shute had been missing since Friday night, when he was engulfed by an avalanche that plunged more than 2,400 feet down a mountainside where the victims were hiking southwest of the town of Marble, authorities said. .
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According to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, the slide was two to three feet deep where it started and as wide as 500 feet.
Rescue teams found the victim's body buried four feet deep in the avalanche debris.
One skier and one snowboarder survived.
The latter went on foot to seek help and rescue teams evacuated the injured skier by helicopter.
Both were taken to the hospital, according to the Gunnison County Sheriff's Office.
Recent storms have increased the risk of avalanches.
Eighteen people have died in the United States from avalanches so far this winter, eight of them in Colorado.
Avalanches in the winter of 2020-2021 killed 37 people nationwide, the most recorded by the avalanche center in records going back to 1950.
