Colorado Man Dies in First Avalanche of 2025-26 Season

A 58-year-old man from Silverthorne, Colorado, died in an avalanche near Vail Pass, marking the state's first such fatality of the 2025-26 winter season, according to officials with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

David Pickett-Heaps was reported missing on the evening of March 7 while snowmobiling in the Boss Basin area, an upper section of Resolution Creek south of Ptarmigan Pass in Eagle County, just west of Copper Mountain. Search and rescue teams from the Summit County Rescue Group, Vail Mountain Rescue Group, and sheriff's offices in Summit and Eagle counties responded immediately, working through the night. Rescuers located an avalanche site with ski and snowmobile tracks leading into the debris, indicating the slide had occurred recently.

The search resumed at sunrise on March 8 with aerial support from Flight for Life Colorado. Crews found Pickett-Heaps deceased in the avalanche debris later that morning. Investigators from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center visited the site that day and determined the slide had occurred near treeline on a northeast-facing slope. The avalanche was approximately two feet deep, with starting zone angles between 33 and 36...