DENVER (AP) †Business is lagging this year at the Boulder Outdoor Center, where adventurers come to book and buy equipment for ski trips into the backcountry.

Except, that is, in one area. The outfitter's avalanche training courses keep selling out.

An influx of new daredevils combined with an historically dangerous season in the high country have played into this strange mix at the Colorado shop and around the West, where 17 people have been killed by avalanches so far this season.

"Basically, my answer is, it's multiple levels of gray," said the Outdoor Center's Eric Bader, when asked to explain this year's troubling numbers. "Yes, there are more people going out to the backcountry who don't have a clue. On the other end of the extreme, nobody's perfect. Anyone who goes out in the backcountry takes some level of risk. Sometimes, they don't do enough to minimize that risk, to be as smart as they can when the risk gets high."

In Colorado this year, the risk is high.

Early-season snow followed by several weeks of dry weather in the mountains created a grainy, unstable base of snow. Heavy snowfall later in the winter, accompanied by strong[...]

[Published in GreenNews - Read the original article]