One person died over the weekend in a major avalanche near Haines Pass, just across the border in British Columbia.
Late March is typically prime time for recreation in the backcountry hot spot. But experts are now warning about unstable snow conditions in the area that likely won’t improve any time soon.
The victim was traveling with a group of five skiers on Sunday in the Rainy Hollow area, just over the Canadian border.
Three skiers made their way down the slope before the fourth triggered an avalanche – which then triggered a much deeper, larger one, according to an incident report from Avalanche Canada, a British Columbia-based nonprofit.
“Even a small avalanche can be enough to create enough force that it impacts deeper layers,” said Zoe Ryan, a public forecaster with the organization.
The slide completely buried one person, who died. The rest of the group was unharmed and dug the victim out before performing CPR.
Canadian police coordinated with Atlin Search and Rescue to retrieve the group via helicopter, according to a news release.
Forecasters, including Ryan, say the tragedy comes amid a more precarious snowpack than is typical for late March.
“People are really keen to get after it. And most people heading out in the back country in that area, they’re heading out with the expectation that we’re in a spring settled snow pack. But it’s just not the case this year,” Ryan said.
Conditions appear unstable in other parts of Alaska, too, including near Girdwood and Turnagain Pass, according to the Friends of Chugach Avalanche Center.
In a recent facebook post, the group said a storm recently dumped about an inch of snow onto existing weak layers, “causing human-triggered avalanches throughout the region.”
An incident report published on Saturday says a recent avalanche caught, carried and injured a skier in the area.
The instability near Haines stems from a few key factors. Perhaps the most important is a unique layer in the snowpack that’s been dubbed the “love layer” or the “Valentine’s layer,” because it formed on Feb. 13.
That day, a “freezing fog event” created a thick, crusty layer of snow throughout much of the area. It’s impossible to know exactly where the layer formed, said Jeff Moskowitz, director of the Haines Avalanche Center.
“But we know that it’s widespread,” he said, “and it’s susceptible to human triggering.”
Extreme cold temperatures have since weakened the snow below and above that crusty layer, creating more instability. That’s resulted in a unique – and dangerous – situation.
“In this case, with, weak, soft, sugary layers underneath, it might become harder and harder to trigger an avalanche. But if you do, it’s going to have big consequences,” Moskowitz said.
Both Moskowitz and Ryan emphasized that this winter has been atypical, with extremely cold temperatures leading to overall instability. That means the Haines and Yukon area still have riskier snowpacks more characteristic of winter than spring.
“Realistically, we’re going to be dealing with this persistent slab problem, likely until we get a really significant warm-up this spring,” Ryan said.
Until then, forecasters are advising people to be extremely cautious – and to stay out of avalanche terrain.
