Backcountry skiers and snowboarders on Vancouver Island should be cautious of wind-loaded slopes, an Avalanche sa国际传媒 forecaster says, after two small skier-triggered avalanches in the past week.
Jan Neuspiel, who has been skiing in avalanche terrain for 40 years, sprained a finger after being caught but not buried in a small slide on Jan. 1 near Mount Washington. He reported the to Avalanche sa国际传媒’s mountain information network, saying that a “very soft storm slab” was accidentally triggered.
Neuspiel, who guides in the backcountry as director of Island Alpine Guides, said he was skiing a steep slope and did what’s called a “ski cut,” cutting across the top of the slope to try to get it to release while staying out of a slide.
“I didn’t get a result from that. And made the assumption that that the slope wasn’t going to slide because it didn’t respond to the ski cut. And then I jumped in and made a couple of turns, and then it decided to avalanche,” he said.
Neuspiel was carried a short distance and briefly covered in soft snow but not buried.
“I think there was a degree of complacency,” he said, because he hadn’t seen signs of instability and he was in a very familiar place. “I had made assumptions about what was going on that were wrong.”
When he went out guiding on Friday, he made more conservative terrain choices.
It was important to him to report the avalanche to the mountain information network, so that others are aware of the conditions that led to the slide.
Another user an avalanche on Dec. 30 triggered by a skier near the 5040 Peak. No injuries were reported.
Avalanche sa国际传媒 forecaster Martina Halik said both were small avalanches of snow slabs — one or more recent layers of storm snow that has consolidated into a slab above a weak layer — and wind slabs, which are stiff, wind-deposited snow — that weren’t out of the ordinary.
“They were basically exactly what was forecasted. And they kind of were in locations that we were expecting avalanches of sort of that size,” she said.
Avalanche sa国际传媒 only receives information about avalanches that have occurred through users reporting to their mountain information network or through operators working in the backcountry. Avalanche sa国际传媒 also has a field team based on Vancouver Island that goes out four days a week that will report if they notice avalanches that have been triggered by others.
The Island was hit recently with a series of storms, bringing heavy precipitation and strong winds, Halik said. “The snowpack doesn’t like rapid change, so it needs time to bond to underlying layers. So wherever you see rapid change within the snowpack, that’s where you might see these layers that aren’t quite fully bonded yet. And if somebody triggers those layers at that time, that’s where you would trigger an avalanche. So giving these new storm slabs, these wind slabs, a few days to bond, is a really good course of action,” she said.
Precipitation and wind will continue through to Sunday morning, before clear weather later Sunday and Monday, she said.
Skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers should make conservative terrain choices, avoiding slopes where the wind is blowing snow onto them, and overhead hazards, Halik said.
The slabs are likely to bond fairly quickly with the Island’s relatively warm temperatures, she said. Lower elevations, warmer temperatures, warmer storms and rain bring a coastal snowpack to the Island that tends to stabilize more quickly than in the province’s Interior, because cold temperatures tend to weaken snowpack.
“Usually, these problems don’t linger very long, but with the rates of precipitation we’ve had over the last week, it’s been kind of continuous. So it’s just, you know, fresh slabs have formed on top of old ones, and new ones keep building over and over again,” Halik said.
Avalanche sa国际传媒 is considerable avalanche risk in the alpine today, with moderate risk at treeline and low risk below the treeline.
Anyone heading into avalanche terrain should carry a transceiver, beacon and probe and know how to use them in case of a burial, and should check Avalanche sa国际传媒’s latest bulletin, which provides updated danger ratings daily at 4 p.m. Taking an avalanche course is recommended, as is travelling with a partner, Halik said.
Neuspiel recommends reading the submitted reports, indicated by blue pin points on Avalanche sa国际传媒’s map to gain firsthand information on the conditions. “And one other thing: to remain humble,” he said.
> Online:
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]