CAIC posts photos and maps of rider-triggered avalanches in Minnehaha Basin

Photos and a mapped overview published by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center document avalanches in the Minnehaha Basin and link an observation that a rider triggered a slide on a southwest slope near Bonita Peak running toward Minnehaha Creek. The material is dated Feb. 21, 2026 and covers the Northern San Juan area.

"The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) posted photographic accident observations and mapping for events in the Northern San Juan area dated Feb. 21, 2026." The CAIC report page referenced in the posting includes images and a mapped overview for accidents and observed slides in the Minnehaha Basin, according to the excerpted report language provided with the posting.

An observation media upload entry tied to the same date reinforces the event description: "Observation Media Uploads. Rider triggered avalanche on a southwest slope near Bonita Peak toward Minnehaha Creek. Feb 21, 2026." That upload text is truncated after a partial regional label, but it explicitly identifies the trigger as a rider and the slope aspect as southwest, giving a specific local reference to Bonita Peak and Minnehaha Creek within the Northern San Juan geography.

Both the CAIC posting and the Avalanche State Co Us observation are consistent on the core facts available: the date Feb. 21, 2026, the Northern San Juan region, and that photographic and mapped materials documenting slides in Minnehaha Basin were posted. CAIC is identified as the source of the photographic accident observations and mapping, while the Observation Media Uploads entry supplies the rider-triggered description and the southwest slope aspect.

The supplied excerpts do not include several key incident details. Neither the CAIC excerpt nor the media upload supplies names or numbers of people involved, whether any injuries or fatalities occurred, timestamps for the avalanche or the uploads, avalanche size classification, crown depth, runout length, slope angles, or GPS coordinates for the mapped points. The CAIC text itself is cut mid-sentence after noting Minnehaha Basin, and the Observation Media Uploads text is cut after "Northern San," leaving parts of the original entries incomplete in the material provided.

CAIC's images and map form a concrete record of slides in Minnehaha Basin on Feb. 21, 2026 and an observation that a rider triggered a southwest-aspect avalanche near Bonita Peak toward Minnehaha Creek. Confirming the number and identity of people involved, any rescue or medical response, and technical avalanche metrics will require retrieval of the full CAIC posting, the complete observation uploads, and any incident reports from local search and rescue or county authorities.