Related: The Early Season Snowpack: How It Affects Your Winter

The year was 2021. November was as stormy as it came. We had previously booked the Asulkan Hut in Rogers Pass, Glacier National Park, for 3 nights/4 days. For the first three days, the storm unleashed all of its might on our cozy alpine hut. Our options were limited, to say the least. We could only safely ski the Tree Triangle below the hut, a series of quality gullies and treed slopes below the moraine on which the hut was built.

We were cautious. The strong winds and heavy precipitation (over 60cm of snow) would heighten the avalanche hazard significantly. Surprisingly, we didn’t see signs of instability, the red flags of avalanche safety consisting of surface cracking, whumpfing or natural avalanches. With a little more experience, I now know that early-season storms in the BC Interior tend to come with extremely light, dry snow, which tends to form slabs with very little cohesion. Either way, it was best to remain cautious and evaluate the storm’s progression and how it was affecting the thin early-season snowpack.

By the third night, the storm had finally passed. The winds ground to a halt, and the clouds parted to reveal a full moon. Woah, what a beauty! We immediately jumped back in our sweaty ski touring gear and ascended the wind-stripped alpine moraines above the Asulkan Hut, granting us a panoramic view of the Asulkan and Youngs Glaciers.

The next day, things went sideways. The skies opened up, rewarding us with a glorious, bluebird powder day. Renaud and I decided to split off from the main group and head into the glaciated slopes below Youngs Peak to ski the 7 Steps of Paradise. We made the #1 mistake taught in avalanche safety courses – beware of bluebird days right after a major storm. The stellar ski conditions are bound to hide some potentially fatal instabilities. As an ambitious human, those bouts of good weather are where I’ll naturally try to push the envelope.

With grand excitement, we raced up the moraines above the Asulkan Hut and gained the Youngs West Ridge. From there, we booted up the rocky crest until we reached the furthest extent of the upper Youngs Glacier. The views of the Dawson Range across the Iccomapleux Valley to the South were jaw-dropping. We clipped onto our thin rope as we approached the heavily crevassed glacier. A wise choice since crevasses aren’t strongly bridged in late November.

We eventually stumbled across the Youngs Headwall, a steep NW-facing glaciated slope. We stopped short of the headwall given the recent storm and the potential for storm/wind slabs at the top of the vast, convex slope. From there, we skied down the 7 Steps of Paradise, a series of rolls leading into a broad valley below the Asulkan Hut and into which the Forever Young Couloir exits. Generally speaking, we were heading for the skier’s right of the Pterodactyl, a large rock tower separating the Asulkan Hut from the Youngs Glacier. We didn’t observe any avalanche red flags during most of the descent.

Now onto the last “step” by the Pterodactyl. I lead the pitch through a winding gully flanked by large convexities on either side. They were visibly wind-scoured and harbouring razor-sharp rocks. My spidey senses were tingling – we should not have been here. Still, we were determined to pursue the line. Just below the gully’s mouth, I triggered two small storm slabs, adjacent to each other. The writing was on the wall: get out! Under a panic, I kept skiing, veering left out of the gully into a vast alpine slope. I thought this would put me further away from the shooting gallery happening in the gully. To my surprise, I unwittingly traversed underneath one of the large rolls. I saw a crack shoot out from the tip of my skis and propagate across the slope. Uh oh! My avalanche training kicked in. I skied diagonally across the slope at Mach 1 and covered my mouth with my elbow, holding on to my pack strap. I truly believed I could escape the moving snow by reaching its left flank.

Moments later, I was caught in the avalanche and launched forward. I was riding in a washing machine, endlessly tumbling down the slope, and pummeled by dense snow. My poles were torn off my hands, and I was ejected from my skis. I couldn’t tell up from down. After what seemed like an eternity, I ground to a halt. While I was immobilized, the snow started covering my head. The weight was unbearable, like being cast in concrete. The faint glimmer of light was replaced with darkness. I panicked. I couldn’t breathe: my throat was filled with snow despite my best efforts. I prayed Renaud would find me with his avalanche transceiver. Fortunately, I wasn’t a lost cause yet. I freed my right arm and dug a narrow breathing hole. I took the most painful breath, inhaling icy snow. I was buried face down with my upper body sideways and my legs straight down as if I were bending over. My head must have been covered by no more than 10cm of snow at most. Lucky me! With hard work, I managed to escape from my frigid prison cell by the time Renaud skied down to me. Looking up, the avalanche crown varied from 10 to 60cm and spanned 70-100m across the convex roll. The slope angle was roughly 30-35 degrees, prime avalanche terrain in other words.

After the incident, I analyzed the events and figured out my mistakes that led to getting caught in an avalanche:

1. Going out in consequential alpine terrain after a major storm was a bold choice. Best to stick to conservative terrain while the snow settles out.
2. The convex roll is located right below a trough leading up to Youngs Glacier. Katabatic winds race down the glacier and funnel through the trough, blowing large amounts of snow over the roll onto its lee side of the roll. I essentially traversed under a storm/wind slab factory!
3. Snow is blown from the adjacent Pterodactyl and deposited on the slope, which accelerates slab development.
4. The avalanche ran on a melt-freeze crust, which offered a bed surface to further weaken the slab’s bond with the underlying snowpack layers.
5. We were both caught off guard after seeing no evidence of snowpack instability prior to the avalanche. We should have instead remained conservative, even if our observations didn’t line up with the previous storm cycle.

By Rogers Pass standards, this avalanche was by no means a “huge” one: a size 2 to 2.5 in terms of destructive potential. That’s when I realized it doesn’t take much to bury a person. Add some hazardous terrain traps, and you’ve got the recipe for a disaster. The incident was a valuable wake-up call, to the point where I’ve been much more conservative in my avalanche decision-making since then. I genuinely hope you can learn from my mistakes and avoid getting caught in an avalanche!

The post Getting Caught In An Avalanche: A Wild Ride appeared first on The Uptrack.

Related: Pre-Season Preparation For Ski Touring: Get Ready To Shred

This article is merely informational and is by no means a substitute for proper avalanche training, such as an AST-1 course. Get the training before heading out in the backcountry. It’s crucial!

Early Season Snowpack and Weather Characteristics

The snowpack is a delicate beast during the early season months, consisting of October and November. With temperatures swinging on both ends of the thermometer, all it takes is one degree either south or north of the melting point (0°C/32°F) to completely alter the snowpack’s nature and affect your region’s avalanche activity.

Cold-Warm Transition

It’s common to have a cold, moist storm cycle dumping 40cm of snow on your local slopes, only to leave in its wake skyrocketing temperatures. The rapid warming trend kickstarts the snowpack’s transition from dry to wet, weakening the bond between layers and triggering a sudden spike in avalanche activity. The faster the transition is from cold to warm, the more unstable your snowpack will be in the short term. However, in the long run, rising temperatures near 0°C only strengthen the bond between layers.

Warm-Cold Transition

On the other end of the spectrum, the transition from warm to cold refreezes the snowpack’s surface, producing a thick crust that may persist throughout the season. As it gets buried under new snow, the crust provides an ideal bed surface for subsequent avalanches as it does not bond well to its adjacent layers.

Shallow Snowpack

Shallow snowpack depths compound the effects of warming or cooling temperatures due to their steeper temperature gradient. More specifically, the snow grain’s metamorphosis (changes in shape) happens way faster in shallow snowpacks. In layman’s terms, thin snow reacts to temperature changes. Generally speaking, a shallow snowpack, much faster since heat travels through it at a much faster rate. Generally speaking, a shallow snowpack, such as the one found in the Rockies, is a whole lot more delicate when temperatures start swinging on both ends of the thermometer than a deeper snowpack, such as the one found in the Coast Mountains.

Ground Roughness

In an early season snowpack, a key concept is ground roughness. Rocks, bushes, and trees anchor down the snowpack during the early season, hampering the avalanche phenomenon. Ground roughness refers to how many of those anchors are present on a given slope as well as how big they are. It affects the amount of snow required for an avalanche to run its course. On rough ground, the snowpack must first be deep enough to cover those anchors before there’s any chance of avalanche activity. Here’s a general guideline (provided by Avalanche Canada) on snowpack depth required for avalanche activity:

Surface Warming

As the snow surface approaches its melting point due to solar radiation or warming temperature, it progressively turns into water. The increased water content breaks down the bonds between snow grains (otherwise known as snow crystals), weakening the snowpack. Meltwater then trickles down the snowpack, lubricating the interface between layers. The weakened snowpack results in increased avalanche activity. This is the number one problem affecting the early season snowpack.

Surface warming is the main natural avalanche trigger. It also increases the likelihood of human-triggered avalanches through problems such as storm and wind slabs. As the meltwater trickles deeper through the snowpack, persistent and deep persistent slabs become more sensitive to human or natural triggers.

Early Season Avalanche Problems

The combination of a thin snowpack, swinging temperatures, and stormy weather creates a few key avalanche problems, either in the form of persistent weak layers (PWL). A PWL is a layer of snow filled with grains that don’t bond well together or with adjacent layers.

Melt-Freeze Crust

Melt-freeze crusts are formed by temperatures rising above the melting point, followed by the surface snow freezing once temperatures dip back below that point. With temperatures hovering close to the melting point in October and November, it’s no surprise that melt-freeze crusts are ubiquitous. As subsequent snow layers bury the melt-freeze crust, it becomes an ideal bed surface (sliding interface) over which avalanches can run.

A buried melt-freeze crust may foster the formation of facets (sugar snow), a common weak layer found within the snowpack. The facets are considered a persistent weak layer (PWL), the cause of persistent slab avalanche problems. Over time, it may “heal” and break down into stable, rounded grains.

Sun Crust

Sun crusts are a category of melt-freeze crusts whereby surface warming is provided by intense solar radiation. In early winter, sun crusts will only be found on steep, southerly solar aspects (S and SW slopes). Steep slopes with an incline ranging from 30 to 40 degrees are also where most avalanches happen.

Rain Crust

Sadly, it’s common for freezing levels to rise above the valley bottoms and see freezing rain ruining our precious powder. Rain crusts differ from melt-freeze crusts in that freezing rain instantly forms a thin ice layer over the surface snow instead of the thaw-freeze cycle building a thick crust. This crust becomes an ideal bed surface once buried under subsequent snowfall.

How do you spot the difference between crusts? Rain crusts are usually thinner than melt-freeze crusts. They glisten in the sun. You’ll also spot narrow channels, called rain runnels, through which the water percolates downslope. Rain crusts typically take longer to “heal” than melt-freeze crusts once buried and may lead to a persistent slab avalanche problem as the season evolves.

Basal Facets And Depth Hoar

Basal facets and, at a later stage, depth hoar are types of snow grains that don’t bond well together. They are found at the base of a snowpack. Basal facets and depth hoar are likeliest to form in a thin early season snowpack exposed to extended cold weather. This is a situation where digging a snow profile is so crucial: it’s the only way to detect them. You’ll spot them as large square or rectangular crystals with defined, sharp edges.

Depth hoar is a late-stage basal facet, larger than its counterpart and has a cupped shape. They’ll flake off to the touch, akin to sugar. Eventually, basal facets and depth hoar become PWLs, which may trigger low-probability, high-consequence avalanches that step down to the ground. Those destructive avalanches are particularly unpredictable. Beware!

Glacier Ice

Glacier ice is another ideal bed surface due to its smoothness. As summer transitions into fall, the first snowfall does not bond well to the ice. Since glaciers are found at higher elevations where winds are stronger, it’s common to see wind slabs forming on top of glacier ice. It can take as little as 20cm of stiff snow to start seeing some avalanche activity. In any case, I wouldn’t recommend skiing on glaciers with a thin early season snowpack for many other reasons – think crevasses and bergschrunds.

A Word On Spring Ski Touring

Now that I’ve discussed at length the hazards encountered in the early season snowpack, let’s consider another part of the ski touring season: Spring. Springtime weather patterns cause a drastic metamorphosis in the snowpack. During this transition, you’ll see a dramatic increase in avalanche activity. In the long term, warm weather will stabilize the snowpack, helping set the scene for exciting multi-day ski touring traverses and spring basecamps. I’ve discussed spring ski touring strategies in the following posts:

• Spring Ski Touring Basics: Weather, Corn Skiing, And Avalanches
• Planning A Spring Ski Tour: Optimize Your Peak Pursuit
• Spring Ski Touring Gear: The Essential Goes A Long Way

The post The Early Season Snowpack: How It Affects Your Winter appeared first on The Uptrack.