Weak snowpack causing increased risk of avalanches in Alberta, B.C.

Forecasters expect avalanche danger to be a persistent problem in Alberta and British Columbia this winter and are urging outdoor enthusiasts to beware of the backcountry.

Simon Horton, senior forecaster with Avalanche Canada, says the snowpack is unusually weak due to long periods of cold, dry weather in November and December.

“It has to do with buried weak layers that are sitting underneath up to a metre of snow and so, if anyone triggers an avalanche on one of these layers, it’s going to be quite large,” he told CTV News.

As of Tuesday, the Kananaskis area is under considerable avalanche risk at alpine and treeline levels, according to data made available on the Avalanche Canada website.

Meanwhile, the Banff area is at moderate risk.

It’s all based on a scale of five, with moderate being a two and considerable being a three.

“Even at moderate danger, there’s heightened avalanche conditions on specific terrain features, and that large human-triggered avalanches are possible under those conditions,” Horton said.

He says the snowpack issue is impacting large parts of the Rockies in Alberta and B.C.

“Since the weather has played out differently in different mountain ranges since then, there’s some different degrees of severity of the issue, but the issue is quite common and widespread,” he said.

On Monday, two police officers were caught up in an avalanche while skiing near Kaslo, B.C., leaving one of them dead and the other critically injured.

The men were skiing near Goat Range Provincial Park when the avalanche happened. 

Authorities say it appears the off-duty officers entered the area on snowmobiles before hiking with their skis to a bowl in the alpine.

According to Avalanche Canada, the avalanche danger at the time was moderate for the terrain they were in at the treeline level.

Dave Sutherland, an experienced backcountry skier, says avalanche safety is always on his mind when venturing into the mountains.

"If you want to be doing that sort of thing for a long period of time, man, that’s always got to be your top priority," he said.

As a manager at a sporting goods shop in Canmore called Switching Gear, Sutherland has noticed people taking extra precautions due to the elevated avalanche risk this season.

"They’re going to adjust their goals for the day to scale it down or tone it down and not ski as aggressively or not climb as aggressively," he said.

Dave Stark, director of risk management at Yamnuska Mountain Adventures, said the last time conditions were this bad was 20 years ago.

That deadly 2002-03 season saw 29 avalanche fatalities.

“We’re all kind of scratching our heads, wondering if this is going to be the setup for a season like we had in 2003, with a persistent problem that plagues us through the whole winter,” Stark said.

That year, seven Calgary-area high school students died after being caught in a slide just west of Rogers Pass.

Sutherland was one valley over when it happened.

“We could see the ambulances coming up the road for that incident and by the time I got back into Revelstoke, the news crews and everything were already there,” he said.

“Hundreds of people go up that valley and it was just an unfortunate event.”

Experts urge people who plan on heading out to take basic avalanche safety training, check the Avalanche Canada website for what areas have the highest risk, stick to lower-level terrain where the potential of triggering an avalanche is less and travel with people who have skills they can rely on.

“It’s a process to be safe in the mountains,” Stark said.

“You just don’t want to get caught in an avalanche, period.”

Horton said it could be weeks or even months before the snowpack conditions improve.

“It will depend on different mountain ranges, and what weather they experience in the coming weeks, but there’s certainly potential for prolonged periods of concern right now.”