LAKE LOUISE – Parks Canada is warning early season hikers of dangerous avalanche conditions in the mountain national parks.
Though Avalanche Canada’s widespread special public avalanche warning for much of western Canada ended on May 1, Parks Canada’s visitor safety experts say the dangerous avalanche conditions persist in the mountains.
With the warming weather and snow-free hiking trails in the valley bottoms, they say hikers are keen to get out, but in some cases are inadvertently exposing themselves to avalanche terrain, particularly in the Upper Lake Louise area.
“The problem area is more around the Lake Louise area – so Lake Agnes Trail, the Plain of Six Glaciers Trail and Saddleback Pass – they are the three trails that start up high,” said Brian Webster, visitor safety manager for Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks.
“You don’t have to go very far on those trails where you would suddenly be exposed to avalanches coming down from above,” said Brian Webster, visitor safety manager for Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks.
“It is very easy to get into terrain where an avalanche could come down.”
Due to unseasonably warm weather, a lack of overnight refreezing, and a structurally weak snowpack, the national parks are in the midst of the largest natural avalanche cycle of the season.
Many size 4 avalanches – which are defined as large enough to destroy a rail car, large truck, several buildings or forest area of up to four hectares – are running the full length of slide paths.
One avalanche ran over the start of the Plain of Six Glaciers trail at the back of Lake Louise and another one came down off Mount St. Piran in a slide path affecting the Lake Agnes Trail.
Webster said these concerns come up every year at this time of year.
“We always have a period of time in between seasons where we’re transitioning from winter to summer,” he said.
“I think it’s a little bit more exacerbated this spring then a previous spring.”
So far this winter, 14 people have lost their lives to avalanches in B.C. – many of whom were extremely experienced – and a 15th person was killed while skiing out-of-bounds at the Lake Louise ski area in Alberta on April 22.
The avalanche death toll is well above the 10-year average.
