Please read the information below regarding high avalanche danger on the Lillooet FSR and Hurley parking areas from Conny Amelunxen the Innergex contracted Avalanche Professional.
As of this last storm several avalanche paths reached the threshold snow values required to produce snow avalanches. In the storm of Jan 3/4 number of size 2 (possibly larger) avalanches reached the road. My concern is the zone between Km 3-7. There is a parking lot that is always busy with snowmobilers at Km 8.5, the Hurley FSR junction.
There is another 40-80 mm of precipitation forecast for tomorrow night and Wednesday. This may or may not come as snow. I figure that if we see 25 cm of snow in the 3-7 km zone we could see avalanches that would be damaging to vehicles and potentially fatal to people on foot or a snowmobile.
Once we hit that mark of 25-30cm in that zone we will pull out our road contractors due to the elevated risk. The slopes are such that explosives will not do much unless they are delivered from the air, but there are goats in that zone so we are restricted. At that low elevation I expect the precipitation in this storm to change to rain and quickly stabilize the snowpack, but this may be a problem that comes up for the next 2-6 weeks until the sun starts keeping the slopes a little warmer.
It is a scenario that has not really come up before for Innergex or the crew that built the facility (CRT). It may be over 20 years since we saw this much snow in that zone.
Regards,
Conny Amelunxen
Avalanche Professional
Please note there are several other avalanche zones on the Hurley that this post does not cover, specifically in the Green Mt and East Hurley areas. Always check the avalanche bulletins before travel and use avalanche awareness skills while on the Hurley Road. This site is user updated, send your winter Hurley updates and photos to info@bridgerivervalley.ca
Green Mt avalanche zones on the Hurley in 2011. Photo by Frank W Baumann