Stay clear of the backcountry; avalanche risk is high
Posted Mar 14, 2013 7:33 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Canadian Avalanche Centre has upgraded the risk of slides in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks from considerable to high for alpine, treeline and below treeline areas.
Travel is being considered extremely dangerous and thrill-seekers are being told to stay out of avalanche terrain.
660News Meteorologist David Spence says blame it on the recent warm ups we’ve seen with the temperature.
He explains it’s creating some instability in the snow pack.
“This time of year the weather warms up and then it melts the top layer of snow during the daytime when it’s warm and then at night time it freezes,” says Spence. “So that layer of snow becomes a layer of ice and then any new layer that falls on that layer of ice has nothing to stick on to and it’s very prone to sliding.”
“If it’s in the high hazard then just don’t go out there,” says Mountain Programs Coordinator Albi Sole with the University of Calgary Outdoor Centre. “That’s the time when things are really out of whack.”
“If you’re skiing, you’re really going to have a hard time not triggering one if you go into any kind of avalanche terrain,” Sole warns. “That’s exactly what the high hazard means, things are really unstable, it’s actually quite scary.”
Spence says given the forecast, he isn’t expecting things to improve for some time.
“It’s now at the time of the year where it’s warm enough for a lot of precipitation to come down as rain, but it’s not warm enough to stay above zero overnight so expect very unstable snow conditions,” he says.
Spence expects mixed rain and snow in the coming days which won’t help matters.
Ski resorts should be fine; it’s not until you go out of bounds that you get into trouble.
Everyone should check the forecast and heed any warnings before heading outside for a little backcountry fun.
Forecasters have listed the risk in Kananaskis as considerable, but that could be upgraded to high in the alpine starting Friday.
For more information on the current conditions, click here.
