5280 The Inherent Dangers of Backcountry Skiing in Colorado’s Mountains What can a fatal backcountry skiing accident on Jones Pass, on the west side of the Continental Divide, teach us about Colorado’s snowcat outfitters? And can these quintessential Centennial State adventures ever truly be safe?Tracy Ross • The avalanche that killed my friend, Hans Berg, on Jones Pass on the afternoon of March 7, 2019, was about 2,000 feet wide and ran from its start, beneath a cornice that collapsed, approximately 1,000 feet to its stopping point, across a snowcat road. The avalanche, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), spread both to the north and south of the spot where the school-bus-size chunk of cornice fell and triggered more breaks on a sheet of snow that sat on what avalanche professionals call a persistent weak layer (PWL). PWLs resist bonding to other layers of snow over time, and when disturbed they can fail, sometimes creating massive avalanches. PWLs are found in every region of Colorado, in part because of the state’s very dry snowpack, and are especially prevalent in the Jones Pass area, just west of Berthoud Pass. Skiing, snowmobiling, or even heading out on a casual snowshoe trek there is a risk.