Backcountry users without experience should avoid avalanche terrain this Easter long weekend, say public safety specialists, and experienced users should take extra caution.
Backcountry users without experience should avoid avalanche terrain this Easter long weekend, say public safety specialists, and experienced users should take extra caution.
Avalanche Canada, Parks Canada and Kananaskis Country have issued a special public avalanche warning for March 25-28.
The warning applies to Banff, Yoho, Kootenay, and Jasper national parks, Kananaskis, the Purcells and north Rockies regions.
Safety specialists anticipate an influx of skiers, snowshoers and hikers, among other recreationalists, entering in the backcountry over the holiday weekend and they want to get the message out that the risk of something happening will increase.
“We expect to see the potential of large avalanches to hit and we’ re cautioning people going into avalanche terrain,” said Matt Mueller, public safety specialist for Kananaskis, Alberta Parks.
“In general, the sizes of avalanches have been surprising lately... we’ ve been seeing avalanches up to size three.”
Backcountry users without experience or training in avalanche safety and terrain recognition should avoid avalanche terrain this weekend, and if they do go out, stick to a class one rating area, said Grant Statham, visitor safety specialist for Parks Canada.
Should a backcountry user wish to view the avalanche terrain ratings, a link is available at Avalanche Canada’ s website, avalanche.ca.
The website also updates on current conditions.
“It’ s not a great time to go adventuring,” said Statham. “To the untrained eye, everything looks fine, but we are seeing some very large avalanches and they’ re hard to predict.
“We’ re concerned about a weak layer of snow at the bottom of the snow pack. It formed in January and is buried with a bit of snow overtop; it’ s a dangerous situation the way the snowpack is structured.”
Those with experience and avalanche safety training should be extremely cautious in areas with thin snowpack, and exposure should be limited by avoiding large slopes.
“What they need to watch for is to avoid all large steep slopes in the mountains ... anything that looks like a black diamond run as a ski hill, in terms of an angle, large slopes of 30 degrees or steeper,” said Statham.
He added it’ s possible for avalanches to be caused by a remote trigger, which means an avalanche triggered from a distance away.
Before entering the backcountry, recreationalists should notify a reliable person of what they’ re doing, where they’ re going, the route, and what time they’ re expected to return.
“The more specific the information they leave with a reporting party, the easier it is for us to pinpoint where they might be,” said Mueller. “If they don’ t return on time, call us or the RCMP.”
Kananaskis Public Safety can be contacted at 403-678-5508.
Safety specialists strongly recommend everyone in a backcountry party needs to be equipped with an avalanche transceiver, probe and shovel.
A two-day Avalanche Skills Training 1 course is the minimum training recommended for travelling in avalanche terrain.
Mueller says even one class will help an untrained eye identify “trouble spots” in the backcountry.
