CALGARY -- A Calgary man out for a run in Lake Louise had a close encounter with an avalanche Friday, and caught it all on camera.
Bryon Howard said he was about to take a video of his run to send to his running club when the snow started to move.
“All of a sudden this avalanche was coming at me,” he said.
“I was nervous, obviously.”
Howard is in Lake Louise this weekend with his family. He started his run on Friday at about 5 p.m., leaving from the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and heading along the Lakeshore Trail on the north side of the lake.
He was near the end of the lake when the avalanche happened.
“There was probably about 800 metres from me and the other side of the lake where the snow was coming down,” said Howard.
“It was moving toward me fairly quickly, and I was like, ‘wow I better move. This could be a real phenomenon.’”
Howard is no stranger to the outdoors, as he has backcountry skied and gone on many runs through the mountains throughout the years.
'Heard the woofiness of it'
In the video, captured on Howard’s cellphone, he can be seen running along the trail, when a massive pile of snow comes crashing down.
“It seemed that I really did get engulfed by snow but it was mostly a cloud of fluffy snow around me,” said Howard.
“Certainly as it came towards me, I heard the woofiness of it.”
Howard’s his wife and son were also running on the trail, but they were several hundred metres behind him.
“They both saw it and heard it and were wondering and thought that maybe it was a bomb that they heard, like a big pop.”
According to Avalanche Canada the danger rating is “considerable” for an avalanche in the alpine and tree line of Banff National Park.
The risk level is pegged at “moderate” below the tree line.
