Skier killed in Maroon Bowl today

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A large backcountry avalanche Sunday just beyond the Aspen Highlands ski area boundary killed one person. 

The slide happened in the Maroon Bowl, which is on the backside of the popular Highland Bowl, a hike-to area on Aspen Highlands. Three backcountry skiers were caught in the avalanche, two of whom were able to self extricate themselves. 

The identity of the person killed in the avalanche wasn’t immediately released.

“Maroon Bowl is a steep northwest-facing slope in the near treeline elevation band. The avalanche broke about 200 feet wide and ran about 2,000 vertical feet,” the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said in an initial report on the slide. 

In April 2018, a local man who spent 30 years with the local search-and-rescue organization Mountain Rescue Aspen was killed in an avalanche in Maroon Bowl while skiing with another person, who survived. 

A separate avalanche on Friday near the town of Marble killed a Glenwood Springs man. 

Nine people have died in avalanches this winter in Colorado, including three men in two slides on Feb. 25 in southern Colorado. Last winter, seven people were killed in Colorado avalanches.