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Associated Press U.S. Route 6 at Loveland Pass, Colo., elevation 11,990 feet, was closed after an avalanche Saturday claimed five lives following a series of storms that dumped 18 inches of new snow.
Weather forecasters warned Sunday against the heightened risk of avalanches in the central Rockies after four snowboarders and a skier were killed at a popular backcountry mountain ridge in Colorado on Saturday, the state's deadliest avalanche in more than 50 years.
The avalanche, which struck Saturday afternoon near Loveland Pass, Colo., about 60 miles west of Denver, brought the number of U.S. avalanche fatalities during the current ski season to 24.
State officials said they believed the men may have been hiking uphill when the mountain face gave way. One snowboarder was freed by rescuers and survived.
Experts warned that unusual weather patterns this year could lull outdoor adventurers into a false sense that avalanche risks had passed.
"Even though it's springtime, we're getting more like winter weather right now. The calendar says April, but the snowpack looks like February," said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, on Sunday.
Saturday's avalanche followed a series of storms that dropped about 18 inches of snow, and forecasters had predicted "considerable" danger near the location where the slide occurred. The avalanche center warned Sunday that the new snowfall had created "stubborn and hard-to-trigger avalanches, but once they break, they are very large and destructive."
Experts said avalanche risk was among the worst they had seen in decades because of how snow has accumulated over the past few months. "This sort of avalanche, it doesn't get created overnight. It kind of takes the winter season to produce," said Mr. Greene, who added there was a high risk of more avalanches over the next month, depending on the weather. "We're certainly not out of the woods."
The avalanche struck near the Loveland Ski Area, but officials said they believed the men had accessed the popular backcountry spot from U.S. Highway 6. The fact that Saturday's slide may have been triggered from below signifies "particularly dangerous conditions," he said.
The men appeared to have been outfitted with avalanche-safety gear, including beacons that transmitted their location, said local officials. One of the victims, Rick Gaukel, 33 years old, of Estes Park, Colo., was a certified avalanche safety instructor and a member of the American Avalanche Association.
The Clear Creek County sheriff's office identified the other victims Sunday as Colorado residents Ian Lamphere, 36, of Crested Butte; Ryan Novack, 33, of Boulder; Chris Peters, 32, of Lakewood; and Joe Timlin, 32, of Gypsum.
"These were all very experienced backcountry travelers," said Mike Bennett of Dillon, Colo., who was one of the first rescuers to respond on Saturday.
The Loveland Park slide came one week after a veteran avalanche forecaster for the Utah Department of Transportation, Craig Patterson, 34, was killed in an avalanche while gauging the snowpack on a slope outside Salt Lake City. Mr. Greene said it had been a "couple of decades" since there had been multiple avalanche professionals killed by slides in one season.
Until the early 1990s, avalanches claimed only a few lives each season. But the increased use of backcountry slopes, fueled in part by the availability of new gear that makes ungroomed ridges more accessible, has triggered more slides in recent years. Fatalities have averaged around 25 per season over the past two decades.
The disaster struck during a weekend event called the "Rocky Mountain High Backcountry Gathering," sponsored by snowboard and ski industry groups to promote backcountry gear and safety.
Proceeds of the event were set to benefit the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
A flier advertising the outing said it was "not a guided event" and, nodding to the organizers' emphasis on safety, added "bring your stoke and don't forget to bring your brain."
Write to Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com
