‘You can’t see the signs of instability’; BC Interior residents urged to be mindful of tricky avalanche conditions

However, Zoe Ryan, a public avalanche forecaster with Avalanche Canada, says the purpose of the special warning is to alert backcountry users of signs of instability that are more difficult to pick out.

“When talking about moderate ratings, it means that human-triggered avalanches are possible,” Ryan told CFJC Today. “But those avalanches, if you were to trigger them, would be big enough to bury or injure you. If you were to trigger an avalanche, it would be large and pretty consequential.”

The special public avalanche warning is related to weak layers that were buried in the snowpack during a drought period in late January and early February. Ryan says the backcountry in the southern interior has since seen a series a series of warm storms that have built persistent slab on those weak layers.

“Persistent slabs are particularly difficult to manage because you can’t see the signs of instability right under your feet. It’s more deeply buried,” Ryan says. “They tend to be a little bit unpredictable in nature, so one slope may not avalanche where another one does. There’s also been a lot of remote triggering. You’re triggering an avalanche from quite a distance away… hundreds of metres away.”

Ryan says the persistent slab varies anywhere from 30 to 100 centimetres deep, but notes the Shuswap is likely on the shallower end of that, sitting at between 30 to 50 centimetres.

Backcountry users are reminded to carry a transceiver, a shovel and a probe before heading out into the snow, and ensure they have some form of avalanche safety training such as Avalanche Skills Training 1.

Additionally, Ryan notes the special public avalanche warning may be extended beyond Monday, but Avalanche Canada didn’t have further information about that ahead of publication.

by Aaron Schulze

‘You can’t see the signs of instability’; BC Interior residents urged to be mindful of tricky avalanche conditions

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