With Colorado’s first mountain snow comes a grim reminder of avalanche danger.

Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) recently published a detailed recap of last winter’s slides that claimed 11 lives. According to CAIC records, the toll was four more than average over the decade that has seen the state continue to lead the nation in avalanche deaths by a wide margin.

The winter of 2022-23 was a near record for fatalities; 12 victims were reported in 2021 and 1993. The recent report outlined 96 incidents with 122 people caught in avalanches last winter, exceeding what CAIC marked as the 10-year median for incidents (56) and people caught (84). The season’s 96 documented incidents were second only to the 2018-19 winter, CAIC reported.

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Of the 11 victims last winter, four were found to be without transceivers – the emergency locator that backcountry travelers should carry in case they are buried.

“We hope the number of multiple-involvement accidents and number of victims not wearing avalanche transceivers are just anomalies and not the sign of a worrisome trend,” the CAIC report read, “though this is the second year in a row with similar patterns.”

The report recounted the notorious, mercurial patterns of Colorado’s snowpack as solo and group travelers on skis and snowmobiles encountered layers waiting to be triggered.

Toward the end of December, a storm cycle had “overwhelmed” weak layers from November, according to the report. The day after Christmas, a family of four triggered an avalanche on Berthoud Pass. One perished.

On New Year’s Eve, a father and son skiing Breckenridge Resort exited a gate into backcountry, according to CAIC’s account. They triggered an avalanche that killed the 22-year-old son.

On Jan. 7, a pair of snowmobilers were caught, buried and killed near Rollins Pass. Another snowmobiler died by an avalanche on Feb. 25, the same day two backcountry skiers were caught and killed near Durango.

That area was the scene of a different tragedy March 16.

A father and two children were trapped by a deluge of snow that fell from the roof of a condo at Purgatory Resort. A 5-year-old girl later died of injuries. “Roof avalanches” accounted for four deaths in Colorado between 1993 and 2022, CAIC documented.

The next day in March saw three skiers caught in a large avalanche near Marble. Two escaped, while another did not. The fatality was soon followed by another along sidecountry of Aspen Highlands, the CAIC reported.

As new snow “broke shallowly on top of a firm dust-crust,” according to the report, the winter saw one final death from an avalanche on April 29: a skier was buried on Bald Mountain near Breckenridge.