Avalanche rating extreme in Sea to Sky country
Posted March 1, 2013 6:54 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WEST VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – There are troubles for your winter playground; all the heavy rain is bad news for skiers and downright dangerous news if you like to get into the backcountry. For the first time this season, the avalanche danger has hit extreme for the Sea to Sky region.
The Canadian Avalanche Centre says the danger is extreme in the alpine and it’s high at and below the tree line. On the North Shore the risk of avalanche is also high at and below the tree line with the warm rain destabilizing the snow.
The centre says there have been several significant avalanches triggered by people in the Sea to Sky area recently. One involved some snowmobilers in the Brohm Ridge area near Squamish. One man was left buried 1.8 metres below the surface, luckily he was rescued.
The rain we’ve been getting is now only driving up the danger even further. The wet and windy storm late yesterday also forced the closure of Cypress Mountain Resort in West Vancouver. They will remain closed throughout the day.
Grouse Mountain shut down early last night at 8 p.m. because of the rain, but Mount Seymour is on stand-by.