Snowboarder Is Latest Avalanche Victim Out West

A snowboarder was killed in an avalanche in the mountains of southwestern Colorado on Thursday, the fourth person to die in an avalanche in the West this week after a string of winter storms. Sarah Steinwand, 41, of Crested Butte, Colorado, was caught in the debris of the avalanche in the backcountry near Silverton, said the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, per the AP. A skier accompanying Steinwand managed to escape the avalanche, which happened on a mountainous feature called the Nose, per the New York Times.

Three people died in avalanches Monday—one person near Lake Tahoe in California and two backcountry skiers in Oregon's Cascade Mountains. The avalanche danger was elevated for most of Colorado's mountains earlier this week, but conditions have improved somewhat in some areas.

(More avalanche stories.)