Anyone headed into the North Shore Mountains needs to stick to gentle terrain as avalanche risk remains high and is expected to stay that way through the New Year's long weekend.
“Recent heavy snowfall means that storm slabs are widespread and remain likely to be triggered by people, especially in wind-loaded areas,” the warning from Avalanche Canada read early morning Thursday.
With avalanches spotted across the North Shore Mountains on Wednesday, North Shore Rescue team leader Mike Danks described the risk as “spicy.”
“It's definitely a big concern for us,” he said. “You really need to stick to very simple terrain.”
Although avalanches in our local backcountry are rare, Danks said he is particularly worried about people who go out of bounds where the risk of avalanches is highest and North Shore Rescue won’t be able to come help.
“We've been waiting for the out-of-bounds skier call to come in and if it does come in, we're very, very limited in our response capability in conditions like this,” he said.
