A recent warning by Karl Klassen of the CAC illustrates the reason to still be on your toes:
Mount Edith Cavell avalanche July 2, 2011
In the last few weeks, there’s been a number of notable avalanches in a variety of regions across western Canada. I do not have enough data that might help determine what the cause is, whether these slides are related to lingering winter weak layers, if there is some kind of pattern in terms of when/where and conditions present when these were triggered.
Suffice to say that from the comments I’ve been getting, photos and videos I’ve seen, and what I know of how the spring and summer have evolved the summer snowpack remains a significant factor and I encourage everyone to keep avalanches in mind when travelling in the mountains this summer. Certainly mountaineers at high elevations need to be aware of this issue but check out this video of an avalanche at MT Edith Cavell earlier this month and look for the hikers getting dusted in the moraines near the runout zone.
