Photo: Courtesy Whitewater Ski Resort

There is a reason there are ski boundaries at a ski resort.

Inside the imaginary line, the slopes are groomed and maintained for safety — with regular blasting for avalanche mitigation — but outside of the imaginary line it’s the same degree of unsupervised risk that any backcountry skier would assume.

So when a party of four skiers ran afoul of a minor avalanche on Tuesday — with two skiers partially buried in the 100-metre wide slab — at the base of one of the most iconic mountain views at Whitewater Ski Resort from its day lodge, the incident occurred outside of the resort’s ski boundaries.

The minor incident was reported to staff at Whitewater that day — and to Avalanche Canada’s website — but it was not a cause for concern within the boundaries of Whitewater. In fact, on Saturday ski patrollers were out using explosives to tame the snow dumped from a weekend storm.

“Pretty much every storm cycle we are out there mitigating avalanches, either using explosive or ski cutting. So it’s a common thing for us,” said Tyler Abbott, Whitewater ski patrol director.

Within the resort boundary the ski patrol will open and close terrain and use explosives and ski-cutting techniques — an intentional attempt to safely trigger a small avalanche — to control avalanches within the boundary.

“So, within our boundary we have no concerns or hazards left, and if we do we will just close that terrain,” Abbott said. “But with the backcountry, it is uncontrolled and outside of our boundaries. There is not a whole lot we can do to manipulate that terrain.”

It is entirely up to the backcountry skier to use their discretion and snow knowledge to traverse that terrain. There is still much remaining hazard in the backcountry, not just in Ymir Bowl but in the entire West Kootenay area.

“There is a lot of backcountry skiing in the area,” he said. “(Ymir Bowl) is just a small piece of a very large mountainside.”

The backcountry conditions are not out of the normal. There are avalanche incidents occurring daily in the backcountry in B.C., Abbott said, evidenced by multiple daily reports filed on Avalanche Canada’s website.

“Our neighbouring operations have reported observing natural slides in the backcountry from this last storm system,” he said. “Our entire West Kootenay has seen an increase in avalanche activity after the last large storm we received.”

When the area is subject to a high pressure system for a long time, compounded with no snow and cold temperatures, a surface layer of ice crystals forms. When a dump of snow comes in it creates a snow slab over the weak layer and the right conditions for avalanches.