Dangerous avalanche conditions persist across Central Interior backcountry
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PRINCE GEORGE- It’s mid January, and already the first fatal avalanche of 2023 has been recorded in the Kootenay’s. It happened on Monday Afternoon, two backcountry skiers accessed a slope via snowmobile at an elevation of about 2300 meters, in the mountains outside Kalso. The pair were skiing when a snow-slab on the mountainside failed in a week layer that was buried deep in the snow back in November.The slide was considered a size 3, which is significant enough to cause major damages to objects caught in the path. Unfortunately for the two skiers, one man was buried under nearly 2 meters of snow and did not survive.
2023 is shaping up to be a bad year for avalanches, thanks to persistent fridged temperatures in the early season, the snow pack from one of the rockies to the other, is nearly as precarious it could be for this time of year. For Search and Rescue Manager and Avalanche Tech Dave Merritt, this season’s conditions are bringing back tough memories of the winter of 2003, of the the worst years on records for avalanche fatalities in British Columbia.,
Prince George has experienced something of a climate 180 this winter. Record cold temperatures in the early season set the stage for snowpacks to fail later in the season, as hoar frost worked it way though the deepest layers, only to be covered by some heavy localized snowfalls as the weather took a turn into mild and moist. With “Fools Spring” upon us, the warm weather and wet air forecast to be pushing in off the Pacific Ocean will make for some tempting conditions for the backcountry and winter-sports enthusiasts,, but be wary of the danger, buried deep on the slope beneath your feet.
