Replying to Storms and Avalanches...Insanity in the Rockies

It's getting pretty intense in the rockies right now!! Kicking Horse just had the first avalanche fatality of the year...a snowboarder taken for ride in a closed area. Fernie, had a 400m (1200ft) wide avalanche that came down the lizard headwall right out on to an open run and partially buried 4 people. Check out the avy report for fernie issued today (note the weather at the bottom..):

Travel Advisory: An abundant amount of new snow, wind and rising temperatures are in the forecast Monday through Wednesday. This will cause a high avalanche risk. The Canadian Avalanche Centre expects anywhere between 25 and 50cm of snow by Tuesday at noon and with it a natural avalanche cycle. On Tuesday afternoon, the snow will briefly slow or stop before the next round of 15 to 30 cm. This will bring storm totals from Saturday that range from 70cm to over 100cm. If you decide to ride in the backcountry, this is the time to stay in relatively low angle terrain in the trees. We recommend riding away from defined avalanche paths and staying on terrain 30 degrees or less.

Avalanche Activity: A number of natural avalanches occurred Sunday in response to the dump of snow on Saturday and Sunday. One of these naturals released in the Lizard Bowl at Fernie. The slide released 400m wide and ran into the ski area involving 9 people.

Snowpack: The main concerns in the snowpack appear to be at upper elevations in alpine terrain. This is where the wind has blown recent snow into windslabs, cornices and where Christmas rain event did not reach. This means that there is likely a thick, hard cohesive slab of snow sitting on weak sugary snow called facets. Along the ridgelines, strong winds and heavy snow quickly built cornices hanging primarily over east and north facing slopes. Many of these cornices are weak and my fail naturally or with your weight. In any case they are very heavy and will impact underlying slopes very hard. In the right spot a cornice failure could cause a large avalanche on the deeply buried facets.

Weather: A pair of winter storms will deposit between 40 and 80 cm of snow by Wednesday morning at treeline and in the alpine on the west side of the Continental Divide. For Monday evening the storm will deposit between 25 and 50 cm of snow in the mountains accompanied by 30 to 50 km/hr south or southwest winds. Expect the freezing level to be at 1000m and rise to 1300m through the storm. A short break in the weather Tuesday will be followed by another 15 to 30cm, also with strong gusty winds through Wednesday. Freezing level is forecast to lower from 1300m to 1100m Wednesday.


Looks like fernie weather is back to normal!