Twenty years after surviving a deadly avalanche in rural British Columbia, Ken Wiley is urging people to be cautious and aware when dealing with similarly unstable snowpack this year.
“Just accept that it’s a challenging season and plan for it,” he said from his home in Mill Bay on Vancouver Island.
“And stick to the plans you make around it. Don’t let those plans fail as you somehow tickle the snowpack to ever-increasing steepness.”
Wylie was one of 13 caught in an avalanche in January 2003 north of Revelstoke, BC
Seven people died.
Two small avalanches triggered by a skier are seen in this file photo taken near the border of Alberta and British Columbia. (Robson Fletcher/CBC)
Experts compared this year’s snowpack, with a thin layer of sugar-like crystals buried near the bottom, to that of 2003, when avalanches in western Canada killed 29 people, most of them in B.C.
Five people have died in three avalanches in the province so far this January.
Avalanche Canada, a forecasting, training and safety agency, said snowpack layers are deep enough that people are less likely to see signs of instability, but the potential for large human-triggered avalanches remains.
Wiley, who was a trainee guide in 2003, said he bears some responsibility for what happened on that trip, including not listening to a group member who he said was uncomfortable with the situation before the avalanche.
“That responsibility brought healing, didn’t it? I have nothing to defend or be upset about. I’m no longer the person I was who made those decisions and choices,” he said.
“I had a maturation that was necessary and unfortunately it took a tragedy to support that maturation.”
Avalanche danger map across Canada, rendered Monday. Yellow means increased risk, orange means dangerous and red means very dangerous conditions. (Avalanche Canada)
Wylie now offers risk management training to help others see risks, speak up in difficult situations and make better choices.
He said people in the countryside should speak up if they see others in their group taking risks.
“I think we, individually, don’t want to be the killer,” he said.
“But we’re in a position as a member of a group where we’re exposed to consequences, and I think it’s easy to forget that.”
Still, he worries that the longer BC’s snowpack stays the way it is, the harder it will be for people to make those safer choices.
“We are fundamentally impatient, and we live in a society that is constantly accustomed to instant gratification,” he said.
“So, yes, my view is that the longer this goes on, the harder it will be for people to make conservative choices.”
A patchy snowpack is expected to persist
Pascal Hegeli, an avalanche safety researcher at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, said he expects the weakness of the snowpack to last until the end of the season.
Because of how deeply the weak layer is buried, it’s unlikely to see the warmer temperatures needed to help the snow pack more tightly, he said.
Hegeli said the extreme weather that comes with climate change makes snowpack less predictable, something those who use the backcountry will have to get used to when planning trips.
“It’s harder for people who go to the countryside to rely on their past experience to make decisions,” he said.
Avalanche Canada reminds anyone going into the backcountry to always check the avalanche forecast, have basic rescue equipment and be trained in how to use it.
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