Colorado officials warn of historic avalanche danger
Colorado Avalanche Information Center officials say they haven't seen a season like this in half a century; Alicia Acuna reports from Denver.
As snow melts and hikers take to the mountains across Colorado, officials are warning to watch where you step.
A record avalanche season across the state this winter resulted in the state's Department of Transportation deploying over 1,500 explosives statewide. Of those shot at avalanche paths, 22 failed to explode and were recorded as duds.
"There's a chance someone could come upon an unexploded ordnance," CDOT spokeswoman Tracy Trulove told FOX31. "Our team is tracking where those unexploded ordnances are, but you may come upon them before we do."
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Trulove said the unexploded ordinance looks like small torpedoes that are brightly colored, either yellow, blue or orange.
"It's probably something that shouldn't be in nature," she told FOX31.
State officials said that avalanche mitigation work needed to be performed in areas for the first time in decades due to all the snowfall the region received this winter. That includes hiking trails on both sides of the Continental Divide.
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Additional avalanche mitigation work is still ongoing, so that figure may continue to rise before the season is over. Some of the devices may also be hidden under snow, and not visible until summer, according to Trulove.
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Snow covers cars as an avalanche barrels down Ten Mile Canyon near Copper Mountain in Colorado.
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People who come across unexploded bombs should stay away from them and call law enforcement.
"It's an explosive, so you definitely don't want to do anything to move it," Trulove told FOX31. "A lot of times, it is just a dud and nothing will occur, but you want a team of trained professionals to detonate or disarm the explosive."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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