Pete Thomas Outdoors

Video shows avalanche engulfing truck on Colorado highway

By Pete Thomas

An avalanche swept across a portion of Interstate 70 in Colorado on Sunday, briefly engulfing at least one vehicle and shoving several others across the highway.

The accompanying footage, captured by Shaune Golemon and shared with Denver 7 News, shows the snow slide seemingly burying a white truck with a family inside.Nobody inside the truck was injured, and later in the video the family can be seen outside the vehicle, trying to dig out.

KDVR reported that I-70 was temporarily closed because of the avalanche and that no injuries were reported, according to the Colorado State Patrol.

The Denver Post reported that the avalanche occurred at about 5 p.m. as skiers were commuting home from the slopes in Summit County, between Frisco and Copper Mountain.

Colorado State Patrol Trooper Tim Schaefer is quoted a saying no cars were actually buried. Schaefer added, “It was more than a dusting of snow. There was also tree debris on the road.”

–Image is a video screen shot

Flock of geese filmed while surfing wave on Colorado River

Birds of a feather not only flock together, they surf together.

So it seemed, anyway, when several geese collectively caught, and rode for several seconds, a standing wave in fast-water conditions at Glenwood Springs Whitewater Park on the Colorado River.

The event was posted onto YouTube last week by a user named AlSwearengen15, who wrote beneath his video: "I just hope all of the little ones made it through okay. I feel bad about laughing because this could have been the end for some of them, but seeing the unison goose surf was new to me."

Overall, their form was excellent. Take a gander:

   

Rafters, kayakers to enjoy one of best-ever whitewater seasons

While skiers and snowboarders are still carving turns in some areas across the West, thanks to  record snowfall winter that seemingly refuses to end, kayakers and rafters are gearing up for what's sure to be one of the most amazing whitewater seasons in recent history.

"These numbers are blowing my mind," Joe Carberry, senior editor for Canoe & Kayak magazine, said in reference to June snow pack summaries for states such as California, Idaho, Washington and Colorado. "You'd be safe to say that most river basins in the inter-mountain and western United States are still averaging above 200% of average. That is incredible for this time of year. Some, including drainages in California and Idaho, were still averaging 400%."

The accompanying video, showcasing the skills of top kayakers on Quebec's more low-lying waterways, provides a glimpse at what rivers out West will soon look like.

 

What this means is that the season, rather than starting in mid-May and waning by mid-July, is just beginning and, because mountain ranges throughout the West are so laden with dense snow packs, rivers will provide rollicking thrills for kayakers and rafters through August and even well into September in some places.

Carberry, when asked via email to list some of his top prospects, mentioned the Arkansas River in Colorado, "with the Pine Creek and Numbers sections set to create carnage galore."

He touted the Class V section of the North Fork of the Payette River in Boise, Idaho, which set flow records last year "and could get even bigger this season."

In California, Carberry predicted, "The rivers won't be the only thing gushing. Chili Bar on the South Fork of the American will be overflowing with customers and raft guides ready to run the classic Chili Bar section down to Folsom Lake, while Class V kayakers get their scare on by charging the Golden Gate section."

Another top spot in California will be the spectacular Forks of the Kern two-day stretch of mostly Class V rapids (the most difficult) in the Mt. Whitney drainage, which feeds the Kern River. That will peak July through August, according to Kern River Outfitters guide Luther Stephens.

Stephens, a well-traveled veteran, also touts the Middle Fork of Idaho's Salmon River; Oregon's Rogue and "last but certainly not least, the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. The Canyon is flowing at high levels and is slated to have a great season as well. The Canyon is awesome. You have to do it, if you have not already."

Sounds like a worthwhile plan.

-- Pete Thomas

Novice angler lands record catfish in Colorado

Jessica Walton had landed only two fish in her life before reeling in the largest channel catfish ever to have been pulled from a Colorado waterway, so it was understandable that the sight of the 43-pound 6-ounce behemoth rising from the depths left her full of nervous excitement.

"When I first picked up the rod and started reeling I thought I was snagged on a rock," said Walton, 20, who lives in Aurora and was fishing in the town's increasingly famous namesake reservoir. "I pulled again and that's when the fish just took off. I reeled some more and the fish came toward the surface -- that's when I saw how big it was and I just started shaking."

It's the third state-record channel catfish to have been pulled from Aurora Reservoir in 15 months, but it was more than seven pounds heavier than the previous record. The monster cat was 40 4/8 inches long and had nearly a 29-inch girth.

It's being regarded as a world-class catch because its weight is near the upper-end average for the species, but nobody has been able to match the International Game Fish Assn.'s all-tackle world record that has stood for more than 45 years: a 58-pounder landed in 1964 at Santee-Cooper Reservoir in South Carolina.

However, with conditions in Aurora Reservoir being so fertile, it might be only a matter of time before it produces fish in the same weight range.

"Aurora Reservoir has ideal forage conditions to produce very large fish," said Paul Winkle, a biologist for the Colorado Department of Wildlife. "There's an outstanding population of crayfish and yellow perch, which provides an excellent food source for fish to grow to enormous sizes." 



When catfish reach a certain size, Winkle explained, they're no longer bottom-feeders but active predators. "This means they will go after fish, crayfish and other aquatic organisms. This predator behavior and voracious appetite allows large cats to grow even bigger."


To be sure, Walton had reason to be "shocked" at first sight of her catch. It was big, fat, ugly, and it wore long whiskers as it rose reluctantly as she reeled in the waning dusk light.

Her boyfriend, a passionate fisherman who had recently introduced her to fishing, was not by her side so she didn't quite know how to act, or how he would react after learning she had just broken a significant angling record.

"I have to admit, Chris was pretty upset at first when he heard that I was the one who caught the state record because he puts so much time into fishing and it's his favorite thing to do," Walton said. "But he's also happy for me because he's the one who taught me how to fish. Before I met him, I was the typical 'girly-girl' who was afraid to put the worm on my hook."

Walton, who caught the catfish on a nightcrawler, said she's considering having the catfish mounted as a trophy, to preserve the memory for her and -- as important -- for her jealous boyfriend.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo of Jessica Walton and her monster catfish courtesy of the Colorado Department of Wildlife

-- To follow this blog on Twitter please visit @Pete_Thomas

-- Editor's note: This post also appears on the GrindTv.com outdoors blog

Colorado climbing season claims 10 lives on popular '14ers'

Wintry weather arrived this week in Colorado, bringing an end to what has been an especially grim hiking and climbing season on the state's highest mountains, on which 10 people lost their lives.

Colorado is known for its 14,000-foot peaks; it has 54 of them, and according to some estimates as many as 500,000 people try to climb them each season.

Jason Blevins of the Denver Post quoted Lloyd Athearn, executive director of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, as saying that based on the mountains' increasing popularity, from a long-term perspective "the trend is generally going down in terms of deaths."

But that's an unofficial assessment because registration is not required to climb the Fourteeners, so it's impossible to accurately keep track of the number of deaths in relation to the number of climbers.

But 10 deaths in one season is indisputably high and that reality has rekindled debate about whether registration and fees should be required in some areas, to help agencies govern hiker/climber traffic.

Many of the Fourteeners do not require technical climbing skills and equipment, such as ropes. But some that do not feature risky routes on which one slip could be deadly.

Three of this year's fatalities occurred on the 14,255-foot Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. In all three cases, men fell to their deaths.

Longs is especially popular. As Blevins writes, park officials are considering a registration and fee program, such as those utilized in other national parks, but at this point they're focusing on education.

Toward that end they're considering erecting a sign at the base of the busy but dangerous Keyhole Route, which reads, "Stop, Think, Assess."

They sound like words to live by.

-- Pete Thomas

-- Images showing Long Peak's east face and the Keyhole feature, as seen from the Boulder Field, are courtesy of Wikipedia

-- Editor's note: This post also appears on the GrindTv.com outdoors blog

Huntington Beach snowboarder dies in 'freak accident' in Colorado

Sad news involving snowboarders has become all too common. Kevin Pearce has been hospitalized for two-plus weeks with a severe brain injury and his close friend Danny Davis on Sunday suffered a serious but not life-threatening back injury.

Both halfpipe specialists had entertained realistic dreams of Olympic glory.

Now comes word out of Colorado that a recreational snowboarder from Huntington Beach, Calif., died Saturday after falling backwards into a creek in the San Juan County backcountry.

The Montrose Daily Press reports today that Mary Scott King, 50, somehow got her head and helmet lodged under a submerged rock after she fell. Her head had been underwater for at least eight minutes in what one law enforcement official described as a "freak accident." The likely cause of death is drowning.

-- Pete Thomas