What you need to know to stay safe in the Chilkat Valley backcountry this winter season

The Chilkat Valley’s winter sports season is known for its immense beauty and adventure, but also it’s challenges and potential risks. KHNS’ Corinne Smith sat down with Haines Avalanche Center Director Erik Stevens for an update on this season’s conditions, forecast and what adventurers can do to stay safe in the backcountry. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

KHNS: There’s been reports that there have been over 100 inches of snow this season, which is exciting, can you tell us a bit about how this season is looking, and the forecast?

Erik Stevens: Well, we had a bunch of consistent heavy snowfall in late November and early December. And that kind of heavy consistent snowfall is pretty good for our snowpack, it sets us up with a pretty strong base, as the season goes on. And now that it has stopped snowing, and we’re in this clear, cold conditions for the last week, and at least for the next week ahead. That’s allowed us to lower the avalanche danger down to moderate. So we’re in pretty good shape. But moderate still means that there are layers of concern out there, it means there’s still heightened avalanche conditions on specific terrain features. So if you’re going out into the mountains, you really should know what to look for and what to avoid.

KHNS: And could you go over a couple of those basics for what to look out for?

Stevens: Yeah, so I really recommend (for) the listeners, there’s a really good website, and it’s no before you go, and the abbreviation is KBYG.org. So if you go to KBYG.org, you’re going to get the ‘Know Before You Go’ Curriculum. And it’s a really good breakdown, a good system of five simple things you can do to reduce your risk in the mountains. And it comes down to these five things: get the gear, get the training, get the forecast, get the picture, and get out of harm’s way. So first thing, most important thing, get the gear: make sure you’ve got a beacon, shovel, and probe, and that you know how to use them and that they’re functioning properly, and you’ve practiced with your gear. Get the training: that basically means take an avalanche course. We’ve got free courses coming up, we’ve got a paid level one and level two courses coming up. So go to the Haines Avalanche Centers website, Alaskasnow.org, and keep an eye on our schedule for upcoming courses. Get the forecast: that’s available on Alaska snow.org. You click on Haines and you’ll get the Haines forecast. We were forecasting for the Lutak zone, and the Transitional zone, which is up the highway. The forecast is four days a week, currently, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Get the picture: so that’s basically when you’re out in the mountains on your own, you’ve already gotten the forecast so you have an idea what to look for. But you still need to get the picture while you’re out there. You need to be observing things on your own looking for certain red flags and danger signs. And using those clues to help inform your decision making through the day. And the last thing, get out of harm’s way: that’s mainly about using the terrain to your advantage. So avalanches, the vast majority of them occur on slopes, 30 degrees and steeper. So if you stay on low angle slopes less than 30 degrees, you’re out of avalanche terrain, and you’re keeping yourself safe. 

So if it’s a high avalanche danger day, people can still go out there, as long as they stay out of avalanche terrain, and stay either on low angle slopes, or stay in dense trees. And if it’s a moderate day like it is currently, people can still push out into slightly, you know, more interesting terrain if they want to. But if they’re going to do that, staying out of harm’s way, what that means is they’re reducing their risk with their group. The group being up in safe zones where there is no avalanche danger. And if they do choose to push into steeper terrain, they’re doing it one at a time. They’re doing it with a safety plan and a backup plan. And they should really trust in their partners and really know what you’re doing.

KHNS: And what have been the reports so far this season, are people getting out there?

Stevens: Yeah, a lot of people have been out skiing, riding, snow machining, it’s been a busy year. But we aren’t getting as many observations from the public this year as we got last year. So I really want to, you know, put out a call to people – send in your observations to the Haines Avalanche Center. We need that data to calibrate the forecast. We have a forecasting team of four people, but we can’t get out to every little spot in the mountains. So we really rely on those public observations. If you get out there, let us know what you saw. And it informs our forecasts and it helps us to calibrate you know, does it apply over here, does it apply on this mountain, in this zone, in this range? So it could be as simple as how deep was the snow when you got out there, you know, how deep are your skis penetrating into the snow? How deep are your boots penetrating into the snow? How much new snow is there? Is the wind blowing snow around? What were the temperatures? All that information is really helpful, and anyone can report that. 

And if you have a little bit more training or knowledge on the snowpack, that’s even better if you can tell us, you saw some whumpfing or some shooting cracks. Or if you saw a natural avalanche that’s really important to report that, or if you triggered an avalanche. All this information you can report it to us anonymously, we’re not going to go out and tell people where you’re skiing or anything like that. It’s all about informing the forecasts and keeping the community safer.

KHNS: So those report backs are really important. And have there been any reports of avalanches in this area this season yet?

Stevens: Yeah, due to our consistent snowfall over the last month or two, there’s actually been less avalanche activity than we typically would see this time of year. So the snowpack has been building up, it’s been relatively strong and how it’s building up. But we do have a couple of persistent weak layers in the snowpack right now. And they’re deeper down, they’re almost a meter deep. And that worries us because they’re hard to trigger. And they can lead to a sense of false confidence in the snowpack. But when you do trigger a layer that deep, it may be hard to trigger, but when it goes, it goes big, and it propagates to a wide avalanche that can be very deadly. So you know, in moderate avalanche conditions with a persistent weak layer like we currently have, we really need to recommend extra caution for people even though the snowpack feels relatively solid right now. And triggering may be difficult, it’s still important for you to use extra caution, keep a wide margin of safety, a little bit of extra safety buffer. Because if something were to go wrong, it could go really wrong really fast. So persistence, slab conditions are a little bit tricky. And they catch people off guard.

KHNS: Wow, that’s important to know. Are there any other trends or kind of data points to know this season? Anything else you’d like to add?

Stevens: Yeah, a really important one is that over the last couple of days, we’ve seen surface hoar developing on the top of the snowpack. And surface hoar is a really nasty, weak layer. And currently, it’s at the very top, it’s not buried, so there’s no danger. But when our next big snowfall comes in, if that surface hoar layer is preserved and buried, then it’ll be a very significant avalanche danger going forward. So just a heads up to people over the next weeks, or even month or two. Next time we get a big heavy snowfall, I would expect avalanche conditions to be very, very dangerous, based on the surface hoar layer that’s at the top of the snow right now. It makes a very slick, weak layer that is easy to trigger. And causes some pretty nasty, sneaky avalanches.

KHNS: Wow. Okay, so people should stay alert for that, where should they check for those notifications?

Stevens: Yeah, so keep an eye on the avalanche forecast, it’s at Alaskasnow.org, and click on Haines, and it’ll get you to the forecast. And that’ll keep you up to date on what’s going on. We’ll be tracking the surface hoar layer and other layers as well as the season goes on.

KHNS: Ok great. Thank you so much, Eric. 

Stevens: Thank you.