I just received the following email from a friend at the Northwest Avalanche Center. The email was originally sent by the owner of North Cascades Mountain Guides, Larry Goldie. As an avid backcountry skier, this is not what I want to hear.
Hello Skiers,
There is currently a set of circumstances in the backcountry that we
want to make sure folks are well aware of.The issue is this:
The level of Avalanche danger in the North Cascades right now is
perfectly set to kill…being high, (not Extreme) the snow pack is
releasing natural slides at an inconsistent rate…we are not seeing a
wide spread natural cycle. This being the case, human caused slides
are catching recreationalists off guard both in the ease of triggering
and in the size and severity of the slides. It is our belief that the
avalanche report from NWAC is not making this clear enough, instead
these facts are somewhat hidden in the text of the report. Suffice it
to say that this is a snowpack that has not existed here in at least
the last couple of decades. Slides are releasing on a weak layer at or
near the ground (the entire snowpack is releasing, full depth!) This is
a wide spread weakness that becomes very dangerous above 4,000 to 5,000
feet of elevation on all aspects and especially on lee slopes where
wind loading has occurred. This in combination of lack of snow at some
of our traditionally safe touring areas is pushing people into terrain
that is not manageable given the conditions.A cavalier attitude about this snowpack will put you in your grave as
it did for twelve snowmobilers throughout the west last Sunday. In the
Methow Valley alone there were four reported near misses between Sunday
and Monday. (not counting the one fatality!) In these instances people
were caught, carried, and/or injured by avalanches…some of these
people were highly educated in snow science and were using practices
usually known to be safe. One such group was not even in avalanche
terrain, they were in flat terrain beyond the runout zone and were
caught by a large slide from far above.If you or people you know have been out within the last week in
avalanche terrain, you too have dodged a bullet. We recommend
that people stay clear of avalanche terrain (on or above you) or avoid
the backcountry all together until a significant warm up and/or rain
event occurs to sufficiently stabilize the snowpack. We should not be
surprised if more people are killed by avalanches in the coming days or
weeks.
Please consider other forms of recreation until this lethal snowpack
settles out.Finally please forward this on to other folks who would benefit from
this information.
For anyone heading out into the backcountry, be careful.
