K
Soem things to think about
I’ve been pretty busy the last week or so doing my planning and budget for next season. By the way, thanks to all the sledders who responded when the stories about the Canadian Avalanche Centre’s budget hit the street. The support, both in your words and your hard-earned dollars sent to the centre for memberships and donations, are very much appreciated. They have made a difference to our bottom line.
I’d like to take up my train of thought from a couple of posts ago where I said I wanted to bring up some points that I feel are worth discussing. My intention in what I’m about to say here is not to offend anyone, assign blame, or to point fingers at any individuals, actions, or decisions. Given how raw some of the wounds still are however, it’s possible that some of you may take what I’m about to say personally or in a negative way. If that happens, I apologize in advance—it’s not what I mean to do.
In spite of the support some of you have expressed, I still have some apprehension but will go ahead and post this anyway.
Following are a few specific examples of actual quotes that I’d like to comment on. I’m not using these to pick on the individual. I’ve chosen them because they are good examples of what I’ve heard in a variety of discussions lately. I realize that I may have misunderstood what people were trying to say and that I have probably taken these statements out of context, but even so, they provide a good starting point for discussing some issues of concern.
Boulder Mountain is no more or less safe than any other mountain with avalanche terrain. Saying it’s the safest place to ride in Western Canada is overly simplistic and gives the wrong impression to anyone who might believe this statement.
Now don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying that Turbo Hill (or any other slide path for that matter) is never safe and you should never go there. You need to carefully assess the conditions and make a rational, informed decision about when it’s reasonable to go there. And at all times, even when you feel risk is relatively low, you should consider using standard safe travel procedures when in such terrain: never stop or regroup on the slope or the runout zone, only one person at a time, have someone watching from a safe point at all times, etc.
In my experience Turbo Hill and other slopes like it, found almost everywhere in the mountains, are what we in the avalanche biz call “regular performers.” If you look at a photo (even with no snow or no avalanche) or satellite imagery (e.g. on Google Earth) showing that slope, it’s 100% clear to me that this is a slope which avalanches all the time and it often goes big. In fact, I’m positive it often goes much bigger than it did on March 13th of this year.
How can I tell? I can see large trees all around but not directly below that slope—avalanches run often enough here that trees never get very big before they are broken off. If you figure trees around here grow nearly a metre a year, then avalanches as big as the March 13 slide likely occur very regularly. The area with few or no trees extends beyond the sides and the bottom of the debris from the March 13 incident so that tells me this thing often goes bigger. In exceptional conditions, even the bigger mature timber beside and below that path would get destroyed. I’ve seen 300 year old trees a couple metres across at the butt splintered into toothpicks below really big avalanche paths. Being able to see this when you look at terrain is a fundamental principle in managing avalanche risk. If you can’t recognize the potential of this kind of terrain, sooner or later you will be involved in an avalanche in a place like this.
To me, March 13 on Boulder Mountain was not a freak accident—it was foreseeable and preventable. It’s a well defined avalanche path and the snowpack was known to be unstable and we were in the midst of the largest avalanche cycle of the last 10 weeks. But you need to understand the terrain, the weather, and the snowpack to be able to make this kind of assessment. That takes training, experience, and knowledge.
In my experience, avalanches tend to occur in cycles. Sometimes the cycles are long (weeks), sometimes short (hours). Sometimes these cycles are obvious and at other times not so much. But, while it’s true that there is never zero risk, there are certainly times and places where/when danger is low as well as times and places where/when danger is elevated. For the last 30 years, I have spent every day of every winter trying to assess where we are in that season’s avalanche cycle. When I am highly confident danger is low I travel and recreate on aggressive features, including terrain like Turbo Hill. When danger is considerable or high, I avoid these kinds of places completely—often for weeks on end and sometimes for the entire winter.
If you take the fatalistic attitude that danger is always elevated and go out there anyway, you leave it to nature to decide if you live or die. And to be completely blunt, nature doesn’t care; if you leave it to her, the odds are against you in the long run.
Absolutely. But again, in my experience there’s much we can do to improve our odds. Using some very basic information and decision making tools we can greatly decrease the odds of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Check the avalanche bulletins (http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/bulletins/regions), take our online avalanche course (http://access.jibc.bc.ca/avalancheFirstResponse/index.htm), get some training (http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/community/sled), use a decision making tool (http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/pre-trip-planning/trip-planner). Any one of these will help you improve the chance of making an informed decision so you can pick the time and place of exposure so the avalanche risks you face suit your personal comfort level.
I’m not saying that the bulletins, courses, or decision making tools will make it 100% safe, but I do believe that these are tools that start you down the road of learning how to recognize and manage risk so that you are making informed decisions rather than just taking a chance.
As always, go ahead and distribute or repost this freely.
If you find this information helpful and are interested in my opinions about other concerns I have, let me know and I’ll do another post discussing travelling in big groups, informally hooking up with other people, some common misconceptions about avalanches, and perhaps a couple of other things I’ve noticed in forums and discussions over the last few weeks.
Karl Klassen
Public Avalanche Bulletins Manager
Canadian Avalanche Centre
kklassen@avalanche.ca
I’ve been pretty busy the last week or so doing my planning and budget for next season. By the way, thanks to all the sledders who responded when the stories about the Canadian Avalanche Centre’s budget hit the street. The support, both in your words and your hard-earned dollars sent to the centre for memberships and donations, are very much appreciated. They have made a difference to our bottom line.
I’d like to take up my train of thought from a couple of posts ago where I said I wanted to bring up some points that I feel are worth discussing. My intention in what I’m about to say here is not to offend anyone, assign blame, or to point fingers at any individuals, actions, or decisions. Given how raw some of the wounds still are however, it’s possible that some of you may take what I’m about to say personally or in a negative way. If that happens, I apologize in advance—it’s not what I mean to do.
In spite of the support some of you have expressed, I still have some apprehension but will go ahead and post this anyway.
Following are a few specific examples of actual quotes that I’d like to comment on. I’m not using these to pick on the individual. I’ve chosen them because they are good examples of what I’ve heard in a variety of discussions lately. I realize that I may have misunderstood what people were trying to say and that I have probably taken these statements out of context, but even so, they provide a good starting point for discussing some issues of concern.
“Turbo mtn has never had that kind of a slide before with that much snow. It was a freak accident and thats all it was. I still say that Boulder Mtn. is still the safest place to ride in western canada and I will continue to go there and hopefully all other people do to.”
Boulder Mountain is no more or less safe than any other mountain with avalanche terrain. Saying it’s the safest place to ride in Western Canada is overly simplistic and gives the wrong impression to anyone who might believe this statement.
Now don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying that Turbo Hill (or any other slide path for that matter) is never safe and you should never go there. You need to carefully assess the conditions and make a rational, informed decision about when it’s reasonable to go there. And at all times, even when you feel risk is relatively low, you should consider using standard safe travel procedures when in such terrain: never stop or regroup on the slope or the runout zone, only one person at a time, have someone watching from a safe point at all times, etc.
In my experience Turbo Hill and other slopes like it, found almost everywhere in the mountains, are what we in the avalanche biz call “regular performers.” If you look at a photo (even with no snow or no avalanche) or satellite imagery (e.g. on Google Earth) showing that slope, it’s 100% clear to me that this is a slope which avalanches all the time and it often goes big. In fact, I’m positive it often goes much bigger than it did on March 13th of this year.
How can I tell? I can see large trees all around but not directly below that slope—avalanches run often enough here that trees never get very big before they are broken off. If you figure trees around here grow nearly a metre a year, then avalanches as big as the March 13 slide likely occur very regularly. The area with few or no trees extends beyond the sides and the bottom of the debris from the March 13 incident so that tells me this thing often goes bigger. In exceptional conditions, even the bigger mature timber beside and below that path would get destroyed. I’ve seen 300 year old trees a couple metres across at the butt splintered into toothpicks below really big avalanche paths. Being able to see this when you look at terrain is a fundamental principle in managing avalanche risk. If you can’t recognize the potential of this kind of terrain, sooner or later you will be involved in an avalanche in a place like this.
To me, March 13 on Boulder Mountain was not a freak accident—it was foreseeable and preventable. It’s a well defined avalanche path and the snowpack was known to be unstable and we were in the midst of the largest avalanche cycle of the last 10 weeks. But you need to understand the terrain, the weather, and the snowpack to be able to make this kind of assessment. That takes training, experience, and knowledge.
“The danger of avalanches in the backcountry is always considerable to high.”
In my experience, avalanches tend to occur in cycles. Sometimes the cycles are long (weeks), sometimes short (hours). Sometimes these cycles are obvious and at other times not so much. But, while it’s true that there is never zero risk, there are certainly times and places where/when danger is low as well as times and places where/when danger is elevated. For the last 30 years, I have spent every day of every winter trying to assess where we are in that season’s avalanche cycle. When I am highly confident danger is low I travel and recreate on aggressive features, including terrain like Turbo Hill. When danger is considerable or high, I avoid these kinds of places completely—often for weeks on end and sometimes for the entire winter.
If you take the fatalistic attitude that danger is always elevated and go out there anyway, you leave it to nature to decide if you live or die. And to be completely blunt, nature doesn’t care; if you leave it to her, the odds are against you in the long run.
“Avys happen. Not always where you want, but they do happen.”
Absolutely. But again, in my experience there’s much we can do to improve our odds. Using some very basic information and decision making tools we can greatly decrease the odds of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Check the avalanche bulletins (http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/bulletins/regions), take our online avalanche course (http://access.jibc.bc.ca/avalancheFirstResponse/index.htm), get some training (http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/community/sled), use a decision making tool (http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/pre-trip-planning/trip-planner). Any one of these will help you improve the chance of making an informed decision so you can pick the time and place of exposure so the avalanche risks you face suit your personal comfort level.
I’m not saying that the bulletins, courses, or decision making tools will make it 100% safe, but I do believe that these are tools that start you down the road of learning how to recognize and manage risk so that you are making informed decisions rather than just taking a chance.
As always, go ahead and distribute or repost this freely.
If you find this information helpful and are interested in my opinions about other concerns I have, let me know and I’ll do another post discussing travelling in big groups, informally hooking up with other people, some common misconceptions about avalanches, and perhaps a couple of other things I’ve noticed in forums and discussions over the last few weeks.
Karl Klassen
Public Avalanche Bulletins Manager
Canadian Avalanche Centre
kklassen@avalanche.ca
