First avalanche death in Colorado this season occurred in San Miguel County

The first death attributed to an avalanche so far this season in Colorado has been reported in San Miguel County. Rescuers located the missing person, a backcountry snowboarder, early Tuesday morning.

The person, later identified as Dr. Peter Harrelson, found was deceased from what is believed to be traumatic injuries suffered in an avalanche.

“On behalf of all of us at the Sheriff’s Office and our Search and Rescue team, I would like to express our condolences to the family and friends of this gentleman. I’d also like to thank our SAR team for their work in this inherently risky mission,” said San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters.

The search mission began on Monday night to locate what initially was a single skier believed to have been caught in an avalanche earlier that day in the Waterfall Creek area of Ophir south of Telluride. That was later changed to snowboarder. Dispatchers had received a call that the male was overdue from his backcountry outing.

Harrelson’s identity was released by the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office.

San Miguel County Search and Rescue was still operating in the Waterfall Creek area of Ophir on Tuesday and requested the public stay out of the area.