A backcountry skier is in hospital with serious injuries after being dug out from an avalanche outside Kimberley, B.C.

Kimberley RCMP were alerted when an emergency locator beacon was activated just after the slide at about 4:30 p.m. MT Saturday near Hellroaring Creek in the St. Mary’s Lake area.

A skier, 35, from Quick, B.C., had been buried by an avalanche. His skiing companion, a woman, 36, from Cranbrook was able to dig him out and then go for help, Cpl. Chris Newel said.

Search and rescue responders located her, and she assisted them in reaching the man.

“A team of approximately 15 search-and-rescue volunteers worked for several hours to get to the subject, stabilize him and then transport him back down to a waiting ambulance,” Newel said.

“The trailhead was located approximately 45 minutes up a remote snow-covered logging road. From there, the team used two snowmobiles and a snow cat to reach the victim, who was another five kilometres in the bush.”

The man was transported by ambulance to East Kootenay Regional Hospital, where he was originally listed in critical condition.

The man’s condition has since been upgraded to “serious,” said Wendy Hetherington of Kimberley search and rescue.

The search and rescue team was also able to locate a dog that the couple had with them that ran off during the avalanche.

The avalanche occurred one day after another slide killed a man skier on Meadow Mountain, 130 kilometres northeast of Nelson in the province’s West Kootenay region.

At least three people have died in avalanches in B.C. this season.

Source: CBC News

Brian Safari Mbaruk has been missing since Nov. 18, when he left his Vancouver home equipped for a hike and never returned. His disappearance touched off an intensive two-day search of the North Shore backwoods that turned up no trace of the missing hiker.

Now, 11 weeks after Mbaruk was last seen, the Vancouver police’s Missing Persons Unit have issued a plea to the public for tips.

In a release to media Friday, the VPD said the hiker was one of just five missing persons cases from 2011 that had not yet been solved, out of a total of 3,961 investigated by the force last year.

Mbaruk, an avid hiker, took a large backpack, boots and other outdoor gear with him when he left his home just after breakfast on the day of his disappearance, leading friends and investigators to suspect he had headed to one of his favoured hiking trails near Lynn Creek or Deep Cove. He hasn’t made contact with family or accessed his bank account since – behaviour that is out of character, according to investigators.

The search involved more than 20 members of North Shore Rescue as well as RCMP, parks staff, helicopters and teams from other agencies.

After 14 hours with no sign of the missing man, they called off the effort.

Mbaruk is black, 21 years old, six feet three inches tall and 170 pounds with short curly black hair and a brown beard. Police say he may have been wearing a grey Obey baseball cap, a dark blue jacket, brown work boots and a large backpack.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Vancouver police Missing Persons Unit at 604-717-2530.

Source: North Shore News

A man is dead after triggering an avalanche on the last day of his skiing holiday around 11 a.m. Friday on Meadow Mountain, about 100km north of Nelson, B.C.

The man – part of a group of two guides and nine fellow skiers — was the second to descend a run when he triggered the avalanche, according to tour operator Selkirk Wilderness Skiing.

The man was wearing an avalanche transceiver and was located near the surface of the snow by the lead guide. The group dug him out but was unable to revive him and his body was airlifted to a hospital in Nelson.

“This kind of thing has a terrible impact on everybody involved,” said Selkirk spokesman Keith Davis. “Certainly [for] everybody at the ski resort it hits personally — the concern for the victim and the victim’s family I could not underline strong enough — and it rocks everybody to the core.”

The man’s name isn’t being released until Mounties notify his family. The B.C. Coroner’s Service and the RCMP is still investigating the death.

The rest of the group returned to the ski lodge and will depart as scheduled on Saturday. The lodge is a cat-skiing facility located about 1,200 m above sea level at the base of Meadow Mountain and is a 30-minute snow cat ride from the tiny community of Meadow Creek.

Each skier in the group paid $4,700 for the five-day and six-night ski excursion.

The company said it is the first death in the resort’s 37-year history.

The guides that witnessed the avalanche will get help from their employer as they “work their way through this” Davis said.

Nine people died from avalanches last ski season and 12 the season before that, most occurring in late winter and early spring, according to data from the Canadian Avalanche Centre in Revelstoke B.C.

So far this ski season four people have died as a result of B.C. avalanches, according to Stuart Smith, operations manager at the Canadian Avalanche Association.

said Ilya Storm, a forecast coordinator at the Canadian Avalanche Center. “That means that up high the snowpack may be losing strength quicker than it does on the valley floors.

“All those things combine to create the possibility of large avalanches possibly running to valley bottoms.”

Source: Vancouver Sun

Wiarton Mayor John Close lends an ear to Wiarton Willie in Wiarton, Ont., Thursday Feb. 2, 2012. (Frank Gunn / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Wiarton, Ont. — Canada’s furry forecasters are calling for an early spring.

Ontario’s Wiarton Willie and Nova Scotia’s prognosticating rodent Shubenacadie Sam didn’t see their shadows when they emerged on Thursday morning.

However, the predictions by the Canadian groundhogs are at odds with Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil, who is calling for six more weeks of winter.

Folklore has it that if a groundhog sees his shadow on Groundhog Day he’ll flee to his burrow, heralding six more weeks of winter, and if he doesn’t, it means spring’s around the corner.

The forecasts come in the middle of an unusually mild winter that has taken even seasoned meteorologists by surprise.

Environment Canada warned this fall to expect colder-than-normal temperatures in the north and west.

But the past few months have brought balmy weather peppered with a few cold snaps in most of the country.

Last year, several of the groundhogs — including Willie — predicted an early spring while a raging snowstorm battered Ontario.

About 150 people cheered Sam’s forecast on an overcast day at Shubenacadie Wildlife Park shortly after dawn.

said Susan Penney, a station co-ordinator at the park, about 60 kilometres north of Halifax.

In Wiarton, a crowd in the hundreds, some dressed as groundhogs, waited as Mayor John Close listened to Willie’s prediction.

Close’s announcement of “hello summer, it’s an early spring,” drew wild cheers after Willie failed to see his shadow.

Sue Allison, 64, and her two friends donned blue and white faux fur hats — complete with ears — and groundhog masks to hear Willie’s prognostication.

The group has come out for the event for 10 years, and dressing up is part of the tradition, Allison said, clutching a stuffed toy groundhog.

“I’m very happy — I don’t think I want any more of this,” Allison said, though she admitted the weather “could be worse.”

Mac McKenzie, who started the Wiarton Willie tradition more than half a century ago, said the festival has helped put the southwestern Ontario community on the map.

“When we first had it, we had only 12 people, that’s all there was,” McKenzie said.

In the United States, Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his lair to “see” his shadow on Thursday, predicting six more weeks of winter.

The groundhog made his “prediction” to loud boos on Gobbler’s Knob, a tiny hill in the town for which he’s named about 100 kilometres northeast of Pittsburgh.

Temperatures were near freezing when he emerged at dawn, which is unseasonably warm for the area.

While Canada’s groundhogs may say the end of winter is just around the corner, meteorologists agree the country’s furry forecasters are predicting the end of something that hasn’t even begun.

Unseasonably warm temperatures from coast to coast have made winter a non-event for most Canadians, weather experts say, adding the unusual conditions have stymied their prognostications for months.

“The one thing uniting all Canadians right now is the question of ‘where’s winter?’ We’re almost sending a search party looking for it,” said Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips.

“Even in the Arctic we’re seeing examples of a winter that has not behaved normally the way it should be.”

Phillips said temperatures in Ontario have been consistently 3.5 degrees above normal for this time of year, while balmy breezes and recent rainfalls have washed away all traces of the season’s sparse snowfalls.

It’s been even warmer on the Prairies, with temperatures averaging 5.5 to seven degrees warmer than usual, he added.

Meteorologists say typical signs of winter have been wiped out by an “arctic oscillation,” a phenomenon that’s seen the constantly moving jet stream remain relatively stationary and keep winter conditions at bay.

“The general idea here is that the jet stream is pushing a bit farther north this year,” said Chris Scott, a meteorologist with the Weather Network. “It’s allowing more warm air to come across much of the country. It’s also keeping that cold air well to the north.”

Scott said the oscillation has been enough to counter the effect of La Nina, a cooling of ocean waters off the coast of South America, that usually sends colder air towards Canada.

It was the presence of La Nina that prompted forecasters to warn of a particularly harsh winter in parts of the country. Environment Canada said the west coast was in for particularly icy conditions, while the Weather Network’s projections included warnings of major storms in western Canada and a roller-coaster of fluctuating temperatures nationwide.

Scott believes the abnormal conditions are likely to last into February, but suggests the unpredictable season may still have surprises in store.

Phillips agrees.

“Here where winter is born, where we built a reputation on winter, it is premature to expect that winter will go away and spring is on the way in spite of what the groundhogs say.”

Source: CTV News

The Lions by Paul Hazon

Photo of the Week: Week 3, 2012

This image was taken from Cleveland Dam in North Vancouver by TrekBC member Paul Hazon. The Lions are the most iconic of all Vancouver landmarks and are a popular hiking destination for locals and tourists during the summer months.

Submit a Photo!

Parks Canada has abandoned its feasibility assessment, and is stepping away from plans to create a national park in the South Okanagan-Similkameen.

On its website, Parks Canada says it “respects the position of the Government of British Columbia regarding the creation of a national park reserve in the South Okanagan-Lower Similkameen Valley and recognizes that it cannot proceed without the support of the Government of British Columbia.”

For Parks Canada to create a national park, it needs the support of federal, provincial and First Nations governments.

The controversial project was first pitched in 2003 and has been hotly debated ever since but in December, B.C. Minister of Environment Terry Lake announced the province would not support the proposed park.

“While the feasibility study determined a national park reserve was feasible, it also recognized there was a large contingent of people opposed to the initiative,” said Lake in a letter to park proponents.

“The Province is not convinced there is enough local support to move forward with this proposal at this time.”

‘An opportunity that cannot be lost’

Chloe O’Loughlin, the director of terrestrial conservation for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society in B.C., said she’s alarmed by the news.

The Pacific rattlesnake is one of 56 threatened and endangered species whose habitat would have been protected by the proposed national park.

“This is a huge opportunity for the area, for the region, from a conservation perspective, from a business perspective, from a tourism perspective. It is an opportunity that cannot be lost,” said O’Loughlin

“It is one of the most endangered areas in British Columbia.”

The sagebrush desert ecosystem is home to 56 threatened or endangered species, including the Pacific rattlesnake, Flammulated owl and the Great Basin spadefoot. The region has the highest concentration of threatened and endangered species in Canada.

A public opinion poll commissioned by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee in May 2010 showed 63 per cent of the 405 people surveyed in the South Okanagan-Similkameen supported Parks Canada’s plan for a national park.

‘No national park’

But the plan wasn’t popular with hunters and recreational ATVers, who vocally protested the idea and erected signs across the region that read “No national park.”

Signs reading protesting a proposed national park line the highway in the South Okanagan-Similkameen.

“I think it’s a very small group of individuals who are actually, seems to me, stopping the whole process. It’s a very small group of very loud people who want to be able to hunt and in a national park you’re not allowed to hunt,” said O’Loughlin.

But Oliver orchardist Greg Norton says it’s more than that.

He says the park would have taken ranch land away from producers and allowed deer populations to get out of control, affect orchardists with property near the park.

Parks Canada said if the province changes its mind and decides it does want to support the South Okanagan-Lower Similkameen National Park, Parks Canada would recommence its feasibility assessment, but until then, “will not publicly engage stakeholders on the proposal at this time.”

Source: CBC News

Most Canadians across the country can look forward to a warmer-than-normal winter, right through until spring, according to Environment Canada’s latest forecast.

The prediction for February, March and April comes after an unseasonably warm couple of months, said CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe.

Environment Canada’s updated forecast is an about-face from the weather agency’s prediction in the fall for a frosty winter season.

Instead, this has been one of the mildest winters on record. In January, temperatures were at least three to six degrees above normal across most of the country, Wagstaffe said.

In southern Manitoba, temperatures have often been far warmer than normal for this time of year, causing problems for ice rinks, winter roads, ski hills and businesses that rely on the cold and snow.

In Winnipeg, the average daily high in December was –3.5 C. The normal is –9.7 C. Snowfall for the month was 5.2 centimetres, while the normal is 19.8 centimetres.

Maritimes may see as much as 25 cm of snow
Climatologists based their earlier prediction of a chilly winter on La Nina, a weather pattern that normally means colder winters. But the Arctic air that usually moves south has stayed put because of a strong jet stream.

However, this trend is of little comfort to people in the Maritimes, who are experiencing winter in full force on Wednesday, said Wagstaffe.

Heavy snow is falling in Fredericton and Saint John, but the Bay of Fundy region will be hit the hardest, with as much as 25 centimetres of snow. Many school districts have cancelled buses.

“Winds will be gusty, reduced visibility. Definitely a tricky driving day,” Wagstaffe said.

Newfoundland is expected to get as much as 10 centimetres of snow early Wednesday.

Halifax, however, is on the border of this weather system, and will likely see a mix of snow and rain.

Ottawa and Montreal were dealing with freezing rain early Wednesday, but this is expected to taper off as temperatures warm up, she added.

Although temperatures in southern Ontario reached as high as 13 C on Tuesday, temperatures are expected to drop in the area under a cold front.

“It’s a much cooler afternoon than the morning,” Wagstaffe said.

Vancouver will see some sunshine Wednesday, briefly, after days of rain, but more wet weather is expected to return by Thursday, Wagstaffe added.

Source: CBC News

If you’re reading this on the TrekBC site you will by now have noticed a new toolbar situated at the bottom of the page. This is a useful new hub designed to quickly connect you with the latest news and announcements from TrekBC as well as our presence on other social networks.

So, without further ado, let’s have a quick look at some of the new features:

Community Announcements

This feature has been moved from the top of the page to the new toolbar. In the past we’ve posted various announcements related to planned system outages and new website features. This will continue from now on in the toolbar.

If a new announcement is available it will appear automatically on the screen when you log into the community. To view the message again simply click on the Announcement icon in the toolbar. This is located at the very left side of the toolbar.

 Online Member Stats

Looking at the toolbar you will be able to see how many “happy hikers” are currently using the TrekBC website features. Clicking on this button opens a popup box which details the exact pages which are currently being viewed and a map of everywhere in the World somebody has visited from in the last 24 hours. You can zoom in on the map and even open it in full screen mode for greater detail.

Recent Posts

Click here to show a popup box containing the last 10 posts in the Community Magazine. Simple.

Share

If you’re enjoying the content on your screen you may choose to share it with friends and other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. To use this feature all you have to do is click on the “share” button in the toolbar and select the network you would like to share with. You will need to login to that network and follow the instructions provided. It only takes a moment to do this and helps increase awareness about TrekBC and our wonderful community of members!

Bookmarks

This is a terrific new feature at TrekBC. Using your account at Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, MySpace or LinkedIn you can store bookmarks created on the TrekBC Community and share them with your chosen platform. This way, your bookmarked pages are easily accessible through Facebook etc. also!

To use the feature simply visit the page you wish to bookmark and click on the “my bookmarks” button in the toolbar. Follow the simple instructions and you’re done in just a few quick clicks!

The bookmarks feature is a great way to quickly access avalanche updates, groups you are a member of and any other pages you frequently visit at TrekBC!

Automatic RSS Newscast

This is our favourite of all the new features! What this basically does is take the most recent news from the Community Magazine and turn it into a really cool newscast for easy viewing. If you see something you like, click on it and view as normal! See below for an example of this feature in action!

RSS Feed Subscription

Have our latest news delivered directly to your email or RSS feed reader. Simply click on the RSS icon the toolbar to get started!

Facebook Page

Keep up-to-date with our latest Facebook Page posts. Click on the button in the toolbar to launch our Facebook Page in a popup window. From here you can “like us” and view our most recent updates.

Twitter Page

Like the Facebook Page, this button will open a popup window containing our Twitter Page!

Chat

Connect with other users in the chat room! Connect via the various social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. This allows your friends on these networks to see you’re chatting at TrekBC and encourage them to come and join you there!

Self-arrest is a mountaineering related maneuver in which a climber who has fallen and is sliding down a snow or ice slope arrests (stops) the slide by himself or herself without recourse to a rope or other belay system.

Self-arrest can be performed by using an ice axe or by using the climber’s hands, feet, knees and elbows. Self-arrest with an ice axe is a difficult maneuver, but without it the probability of effectively arresting a fall is greatly diminished.

The goal of self-arrest is to stop safely and quickly in a secure and stable position on the snow. If you’ve performed this technique correctly you should end up lying face down in the snow with the ice axe beneath you, feet pointed downhill.

• Your hands should hold the axe with a solid grip. One hand must use the self-arrest grasp, thumb under the adze and fingers over the pick, while the other hand should be on the shaft just above the spike.
• The pick will be pressed into the snow just above your shoulder so that the adze is near the angle formed by the neck and shoulder. This part is crucial as you cannot exert sufficient force on the pick if the adze is not in the correct position.
• The shaft must cross your chest diagonally and be held close to the opposite hip. Gripping the shaft near the end prevents that hand from acting as a pivot around which the spike can swing to jab the thigh. (A short axe is held the same way, although the spike will not reach the opposite hip.)
• You must press your chest and shoulder strongly down on the ice-axe shaft. It is your body weight falling and pressing on the axe, rather than just arm strength driving the axe into the snow, that results in a successful self-arrest.
• Your head should be face down, not looking up the slope. The brim of your helmet should be in contact with the slope. This head positioning prevents the shoulders and chest from lifting up and keeps the weight over the adze.
• Arch your spine slightly away from the snow. This position is critical because it places the bulk of your weight on the axe head and on your toes or knees, which are the points that dig into the snow to force a stop. Also pull up on the end of the shaft, which starts the arch and rolls weight toward the shoulder by the axe head.
• Keep your knees are against the surface of the snow/ice. This will help to slow your fall in softer snow. On harder surfaces, your knees will have little stopping power. They can however help stabilize your body position.
• Your legs should be stiff and spread apart, toes digging in. This will help prevent your body spinning around to point you headfirst down the hill. If you are wearing crampons, bend your knees and keep your feet well up off the surface of the snow until you’ve nearly come to a halt. A crampon point could catch on hard snow or ice and flip you over backward.

There are multiple ways to self-arrest depending on the position you are in when you initially fall. Read the full article at TrekBC and discover all the ways you can save yourself when the inevitable happens on your next winter trip to the mountains!

Ideas and diagrams taken from Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills

A Washington snowmobiler is now telling his harrowing story after an avalanche buried him alive and says he survived only because he was rescued by friends.

John Swanson was caught in the slide Sunday in Stampede Pass on Mount Washington, about 30 kilometres south of Seattle.

The immediate afermath was caught on a video camera mounted on a friend’s helmet.

Swanson’s friend, Rick Jablinske, witnessed the avalanche and helped dig his buddy out.

“They were digging, then I was, ‘Like, this isn’t good.’ So I was grabbing a shovel while the guys were all in there with hands,” Jablinske said.

Swanson said he was conscious, but trapped.

Swanson said he was extremely lucky that they knew where to find him.

“They knew where I went in the snow and that was the saving grace … knowing exactly where I went in the snow,” he said.

The friends managed to get him air just in time.

“Once his head was out then I was a lot more relieved,” said Jablinske. “He was just saying, ‘Get me out, get me out.’”

Danger level high

Mild and rainy weather conditions in the backcountry on much of the West Coast have been causing concerns since last weekend.

The Canadian Avalanche Centre says B.C.’s coastal mountains and the North Shore are dangerous right now.

“Right now we are going through a pretty stormy period on the coast and as the storm is persisting our avalanche danger tends to elevate,” said Shannon Werner of the Canadian Avalanche Centre.

The centre’s website shows areas at high risk for avalanches in red, with a four out of five danger rating.