“Respecting the forces of nature: Urging caution for mountain climbers during the high season”

“This winter, people have understood that mountain climbing can kill you! Especially when the Varsom app flashes orange, people remember that a summit trip in the sun can end with them being crushed under 100 tons of snow, or even worse: being suffocated by the snow that they enjoyed so much.”

This is how Erlend Leander Johansen (30) wants to urge respect towards the forces of nature now in the high season for top hikes, in the Facebook group “Top hikes in Jotunheimen, Rondane and Dovrefjell”.

“You always take a risk when you move in terrain traps and avalanche terrain,” he writes.

Got away

The 30-year-old says that during the season he takes a peak trip on average every second weekend, usually together with his dog Jango (3). He has experienced the danger of landslides up close, when he triggered a landslide in Jotunheimen west in March, even though the warning was at level 2 out of 5.

– You can get a surprise that costs you your life, he says to Dagbladet.

– Fortunately, I got away within five seconds. When that happens, you see that it’s not nonsense – if you get caught, you get caught, and you get confirmation that the science of this is true.

The 30-year-old recalls that there are currently several meters of snow in several places in Jotunheimen. In this case, fresh snow had come on top of another layer of snow.

“Safe snow skiing should preferably be over before lunchtime.”
Markus Eckerstorfer, supervisor of the avalanche warning in NVE

– If it is stepped on, it starts to move, he says.

Johansen explains that weak layers in the snow that have been lying all winter can create heavy ones flakskreddepending on how deep they are.

Large local variations

– What precautions do you take in the mountains?

– I always assess the weather on site, and follow the days leading up to the weekends when I’ve made up my mind. The avalanche warning at Varsom is a great indicator, but many people are completely blind to the warnings, he says and continues:

I think the tourists are taking chances

– Jotunheimen spans a height difference of 2,000 metres. You can be in places where there has been recent snow, but suddenly you are in an area where there have been local showers – the warning may say 2, while in reality there is a great risk of avalanches.

– What can people do to reduce the danger?

– Read books about landslides, take courses, talk to people with speed. It can always be dangerous, and you can never be completely sure, even if you dig for unstable layers. Where there has been snow, there are always a couple of days when it is not stable – you never completely get rid of the risk.

Four perished

Norway was reminded of the powerful forces of nature at Easter. On Palm weekend a total of four people lost their lives in an avalanche in Troms.

Many hikers are expected in the mountains next weekend. In several places in Troms and Nordland, an orange danger warning (level 3) has been issued for the coming days, while further south, in Jotunheimen and on Sunnmøre, among others, the warning is level 2, or yellow, according to Varsom.no.

Markus Eckerstorfer, supervisor of the avalanche warning at NVE, explains that the distribution of the danger warnings largely reflects the time of year.

– In the south and west and partly in the east, these are very typical spring conditions, he says to Dagbladet.

Eckerstorfer advises top-touring skiers to “time the trip well”:

– Early in the day, the snow can be hard, but if you start too late, it can be far too soft, and there is a risk of triggering loose snow avalanches. Safe snow skiing should ideally be finished before lunchtime, he says.

The avalanche warning also recommends that hikers stay away from snow shovels and hang shovels on top.

Rain

The orange danger warnings from Salten to Lyngen are due to the fact that since Wednesday it has rained quite a lot high up in the mountains.

– We expect wet flak avalanches, which are due to water weakening the snow cover. The main problem is that you don’t quite know the timing, says Eckerstorfer.

NVE expects wet flak avalanches to occur in the aforementioned northern areas today and tomorrow.

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– They can have a good size, emphasizes Eckerstorfer.

From Friday afternoon it will be colder from Salten to Lyngen, and in the evening snow and a good deal of wind are expected. The avalanche warning service urges people to be vigilant jib snow.

– There will be cold snow on a “warm” surface. This can result in the rapid formation of a thin layer of very fragile crystals, edge grains. If there is new snow on the summit, there may be an avalanche.

Eckerstorfer recommends that everyone use Varsom.no as a starting point.

– And the Varsom app (Varsom Regobs) – where you can also see other people’s observations, and maps showing avalanche terrain, he says – but underlines that Varsom “is only an aid” that comes in addition to other knowledge.

Different types

Jo Gunnar Ellevold, former avalanche expert in the Norwegian Armed Forces, says that it is important to distinguish between avalanches that occur in winter and those that occur now in spring.

– Earlier in the winter, dry flak avalanches occur, normally triggered by the skier himself or someone else in the entourage. At this time, there are often wet avalanches, he tells Dagbladet.

Ellevold explains that in the case of wet slab avalanches, the avalanche masses loosen due to the weakening of the bonds in the snow – be it due to solar heating or temperatures in the air.

– You can experience being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And in weakened snow cover due to solar enrichment, you can also trigger the avalanche yourself, says the avalanche expert.

“It can be absolutely fatal if you end up in a river of snow, slush and water.”
Jo Gunnar Ellevold, former avalanche expert in the Norwegian Armed Forces

A phenomenon that is now taking effect is snow cover that has been wet or moist throughout the cover (i.e. isothermal) and kept at zero degrees – and then freezes at night.

– Then you get a stable snow cover, because the weak layers in the cover, which usually cause avalanches earlier in the winter, have been transformed, melted. The stable cover lasts until daytime temperatures or sun make it unstable, Ellevold explains.

Like a house of cards

He further explains that persistent weak layers earlier in the winter are about buried frost layers, or so-called edge-grained crystals or goblet crystals.

– They are very sharp at the edges and stand on top of each other like in a house of cards. When the skier arrives, it happens that the “house of cards” collapses, and we get an avalanche. Now in the spring, the goblet crystals have melted and frozen together like a big snowball of ice. It is much more stable and cannot trigger landslides.

The landslide expert warns against a particularly insidious type of landslide that has previously claimed a number of lives:

– When we come out in May and it will be warm and there will be a lot of water and snow in the mountains, on sunny, fine days you should be very aware of what is called flash floodwhich consists of a lot of water and syrup, he explains and continues:

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– Floodslides are not something you trigger yourself, but follow the terrain and stream flows – all possible subsidence. It can be completely fatal if you end up in a river of snow, slush and water.

Ellevold states that the water can initially be held in place by natural dams of snow and ice, but that these occasionally burst.

– This must be taken into account when moving in the mountains, especially in May, he exhorts.