A trained Parks Canada avalanche specialist was swept away in an avalanche he accidentally triggered along the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park last Friday (Jan. 29).
The man, who was doing an avalanche forecast assessment in the Parker Ridge area, was luckily uninjured in the Class 3 avalanche, which measured 70 to 240 centimetres in depth, 400 metres wide and 400 metres long.
“The avalanche partially buried the specialist, but he’s uninjured. We’re always grateful for the safety of our staff,” said Parks Canada spokesman Steve Young.
“The incident involving a professional showcases the volatile nature of the snowpack, and the public needs to keep safety in mind when planning their activities.”
The slide, which was triggered just before 12:30 p.m. last Friday was a Class 3, which on the avalanche scale is described as big enough to bury a car, destroy a small building or break trees.
Icefields Parkway was closed for about 24 hours so avalanche debris could be cleared away.
“We had to stabilize before we could go in and do the plowing,” said Young.
The avalanche hazard in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay is presently considerable in the alpine and at treeline, though there is a chance that will be downgraded to moderate by the middle of the week.
Recent wind has built soft slabs 30 to 50 cm deep in lee areas and established new growth on cornices. Although these slabs generally exist at upper elevations, avalanches have the potential to run a long distance.
In addition, 30-60 cm of settled snow overlies a persistent weak layer of surface hoar, crystals and faceted crystals. This continues to be reactive to being triggered by people, with the potential for failures caused by stepping into deeper snowpack layers and resulting in large avalanches.
“Over the last week we had a series of storms go through which overloaded the Jan. 6 layer,” said Aaron Beardmore, a visitor safety specialist for Banff, Yoho and Kootenay.
“That, in combination with warm temperatures and a critical amount of snow, produced a widespread natural avalanche cycle, which peaked on Friday,”
Since Friday, Beardmore said, the natural avalanche cycle has tapered off due predominantly to cooler temperatures and in part due to wind dying down.
“However, that 60 cm slab is still sitting on top of the Jan. 6 layer, which we still believe to be highly susceptible to human triggering,” he said.
Beardmore said the short-term avalanche forecast is promising.
“You might seem some respite in natural avalanches, and when temperates go up and with increasing wind, we might go up to considerable again,” he said. “We’ll be living with this consistent slab problem for a little while yet.”
Parks Canada encourages those heading into avalanche terrain to read the avalanche bulletin daily (avalanche.ca), which is refreshed every day at 5 p.m.
“The conditions change rapidly, so check daily so you can make informed decisions before heading out,” said Beardmore.
“Always be prepared, take an avalanche skills training course and have proper avalanche equipment.”
January was a deadly month for avalanche fatalities in neighbouring British Columbia. Five snowmobilers from Alberta were killed in the Renshaw area east of McBride, B.C. last Friday, and another snowmobiler was killed east of Prince George just four days earlier.
