Growing number of snowshoers targeted at avalanche awareness event
Credit to Author: Glenda Luymes| Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2019 01:43:59 +0000
Among the winter sports that take people into the B.C. backcountry, snowshoeing isn’t considered particularly extreme.
The deaths of six snowshoers in two separate incidents since 2017 challenges that notion.
Snowshoers were the target audience at an avalanche awareness event Saturday afternoon in North Vancouver, attended by more than 400 people.
“In the past, snowshoers haven’t really been on our radar,” said presenter Mark Bender, a senior avalanche forecaster for Avalanche Canada. “But clearly people are getting out there.”
The goal of the event was make people aware of when they might be putting themselves at risk by recognizing the terrain and snow conditions that contribute to avalanches.
“We want people to recognize the risk, for it to be a conscious decision rather than walking out there and having no idea,” said Bender, who lives and works in Revelstoke.
Changes to the sport, including advances in gear that makes climbing steep slopes easier, as well as its growing popularity have led to more people accessing backcountry areas where avalanches can occur, particularly in the North Shore mountains.
“We’re not trying to scare people from the mountains. We just want them to be aware, so they can make good decisions,” said A.J. Maheu, an avalanche forecaster for North Shore Rescue.
Maheu presented a case study of a rescue conducted in February 18, 2019 on Runner Peak, when two snowshoers from Surrey were caught in an avalanche as they were hiking below the peak. One of the men triggered an avalanche and was swept down a steep slope and buried. The other was on the edge of the slide and managed to hold onto a tree.
On that day, Maheu was responsible for assessing the avalanche conditions in the mountains to ensure the safety of any search and rescue teams dispatched into risky terrain.
North Shore Rescue was alerted to the avalanche at 10 a.m. after the man in the tree was able to call 911. Two hours later, a rescue team was “skinning up” the mountain on skis.
But the visibility was poor, said Maheu. “It was like skiing on the inside of a Ping-Pong ball.”
The team soon came to a steep slope that presented an avalanche risk.
“We were looking into a big white void. If we were skiing for fun, we wouldn’t go there,” said Maheu.
The avalanche forecaster made the difficult decision to turn back rather than risking the lives of the rescue team.
At 2:30 p.m., the clouds lifted enough for a helicopter to fly above the avalanche area. The searchers realized there was a high likelihood of another avalanche as snow remained precariously suspended above the area. The only way to rescue the man was by using a long line from a helicopter.
Maheu said the team was “extremely lucky” when the weather cleared enough to conduct the rescue.
Racing against nightfall, rescuers then deployed several explosives from the helicopter to knock off the remaining snow, allowing searchers with dogs to sweep the bottom of the slide path to find the other man. They were unsuccessful.
It would be 36 hours before the weather allowed them to safely access the area again. A probe team with dogs was able to recover the man’s body on Feb. 20.
A photo provided by North Shore Rescue via their Facebook page shows the Feb. 18, 2019 rescue of two snowshoers who were caught in an avalanche on Runner Peak just north of Mount Seymour. One man was extracted, while the second was found dead.
Maheu said he shared the story, in part, to show how avalanche conditions can complicate a rescue.
Participants at Saturday’s event were encouraged to take avalanche skills training.
“If you have doubts about your safety, it’s best to avoid,” said Barry Janyk, executive director of the Federation of Mountain Clubs of B.C., one of the event’s organizers. “You can have all the training and experience, and sometimes the right decision is to get out of there.”
The slide location on Runner Peak in February 2019.
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