‘Terrifying’ video shows avalanche engulf snowmobiler in Colorado backcountry

Two snowmobilers charge up a snowy slope in the Colorado backcountry, a video posted Saturday by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center shows.

The first snowmobile accidentally triggers an avalanche, which roars downslope to engulf the second snowmobile and sweep it away, the video shows.

“It’s really quite terrifying,” said center director Ethan Greene, KDVR reported. “Fortunately, the fellow that was caught in the avalanche ends up with his head above the snow.”

The avalanche happened Feb. 11 in Birdseye Gulch near Leadville, Colorado, the center wrote in a Facebook post with the video.

Three skiers had crossed the snow terrain just ahead of the snowmobiles but were too light to trigger an avalanche, according to the center.

“The skiers were fortunate to not trigger an avalanche,” the agency wrote. “Moments later the snowmobiler, a larger trigger, was able to collapse the weak layer and trigger an avalanche.”

The center did not release information on the condition of the second snowmobiler.

Avalanche risks in most parts of Colorado have declined since the Feb. 11 one was caught on video, Greene said, according to KDVR.

“There’s a lot of places where you can recreate,” he said, the station reported. “But there’s still places where you can trigger pretty dangerous avalanches, and in some places we’re seeing quite large and unsurvivable ones.”

Snowmobilers Dillon Block, 28, and Cesar Almanza-Hernandez, 30, both of Gypsum, Colorado, died Feb. 15 after accidentally triggering an avalanche on Muddy Pass near Vail, CNN reported. A third snowmobiler freed himself from the snow and notified authorities.