Pro RMK


Lori and Randy Zacaruk

Invited by our dealer, High River Motorsports, Randy & Lori headed to Revelstoke at the beginning of March to test ride the 2011 Pro RMK.


Andy Duffill – owner HRMS, Lori and Randy Zacaruk, Trevor Tosh – mechanic HRMS

We met Andy & Trevor and the boys from Polaris Industries at the Glacier House Resort and rode with them for 2 days.

Take a look at the video clip that Polaris posted on YouTube

We had a blast riding the new sleds and taking part in the dealer and customer feedback session to compare them with the IQ chassis.

Avy conditions kept riders off the big hills but some still made a few bold pokes through the trees. Sleds handled awesome, super nimble, smooth and consistent with better power and good clutching.
The coil over rear suspension was a fantastic upgrade. The ride was excellent.
Pretty sure Lori picked up even more speed on the trail. You thought she was fast before. Watch out now. One of the dealers even questioned why she wasn’t a racer!

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Unfortunately Randy liked them so much that he is determined to upgrade. So…if anyone is in the market we now have one lady driven turbo for sale! lol ;)

2008 700 RMK, 163”, 2 ½” Camo Extreme. Anti-ratchet drivers, anti-stab wheels, low compression head, two extra engine braces, SPS 10 lb. race fuel turbo kit with a Garrett automotive turbo, lots of gauges and venting. 6” riser. 800 gearing.
This is one that works! Asking $12,000.

Stock 2009 800 Dragon, 163”. Low miles. Almost 2 years warranty left. Fully clipped stock track with hyperfax. Electric start. Asking $10,000.

Both sleds always stored inside and hauled in enclosed trailers. Regularly maintained.
403-860-9944 Randy

Special Avalanche Warning

The Canadian Avalanche Centre has issued a
Special Avalanche Warning for the 2nd... 3rd weekend in a row. UNPRECEDENTED!

The Warning has expanded to include more regions of British Columbia.

March 2, 2010. – THIS IS THE LATEST UPDATE issued by the Forecasters at the Canadian Avalanche Centre. CLICK HERE

Pictures of recent avalanches have been posted on the CAC website. CLICK HERE

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Find answers to these questions – CLICK HERE to read the SPAW

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Please copy THIS LINK and send to all your sledding contacts. Conditions like this are the perfect recipe for an avalanche accident.

What are the ingredients of this Special Avalanche Warning?

Below are some of the reasons why this SPAW has been issued.

Several weaknesses are present in the upper meter of the snowpack right now. Snowmobilers and skiers have been triggering a wide variety of alpine and treeline slopes.
Mainly on North Aspects in the Treeline and in the Alpine.

Expected snowfalls are NOT forecast to be large enough to lead to a cycle of natural avalanches. Too bad, as a big dump of snow could possibly let nature clean off many of these unstable slopes for us.

EVEN LOW ANGLE slopes are releasing right now. REMOTE TRIGGERING has also been reported.
This means that slopes may be releasing at a distance from the trigger point. You don’t have to be ON THE BIG SLOPE…JUST CONNECTED TO THE SLOPE.
*See the pictures and stories submitted from Zac’s students below


This little slide looks harmless…imagine it on a larger slope…or on a slope with a trap where the snow can accumulate leading to a deep burial.

Weekends bring more riders. With more traffic people push the terrain even harder in search of fresh tracks.

Without the obvious clue of naturally triggered avalanches people often get a false impression that the snowpack is stable.


Photo credit to Becky Corfe, Grande Prairie, AB

Why is this different from a forecast of ‘High’ or ‘Extreme’ avalanche conditions?

Statistically, recreational fatalities are more likely to occur during a period rated as ‘Considerable’. Why?

Often in a period rated as High or Extreme we are in the middle of a storm and there are fewer people out. Also, ratings of High or Extreme do not tend to last long.

People notice the action and ease off to simpler terrain.

Basically this means that the snowpack isn’t unstable enough for the balance to tip with nature’s influence alone…but add the additional load of a sledder and the snowpack may struggle to hold together.

A Special Avalanche Warning DOES NOT mean that you cannot go riding in the backcountry. It means:

CLICK HERE for Avalanche Bulletins for Canada
CLICK HERE for Avalanche Bulletins for the United States.

CLICK HERE for more info.

Zac’s Tracs last avalanche course of the season – GOLDEN, BC – March 5-7, 2010

Other avalanche course providers recognized by the CAC

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Feedback received from Zac’s Contacts during the SPAW

Hey Lori, Feb 19, 1:00pm
You’re talking low angles. This pic is from Hunters (Range) last weekend.
Riding on top of a rolling ridge as you can see when a crack propagated from my uphill ski and ran down about 300 feet in front of me. At the crest there was almost no slope at all and it still cracked!!!

The ridge was less than 10 degree for about 100 feet downhill of me with a tree ridge line at the crest above a 60foot drop.

Sure got the heart going, anything facing west, northwest was slabbing heavy on both hi and low approaches

Going to Blue River in a few hours! Cheers, R Lorenson

Thanks for sharing your story and pictures R.L.! Interesting conditions alright. The weak layer has such little resistance (low cohesion to the layer sitting on top of it) that even low angle slopes are failing.
A bigger dump of snow would likely lead to a cycle of natural avalanches that might clean many of these slopes off, however our snowfall amounts have been a quite low in many places throughout the province recently. We’ll see what the next week brings! Lori Z.
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Email received. Feb 23, 8:00pm
Hi Lori; Thanks for passing on the CAC warning, we were enroute to Fernie for a ride and got it on a Blackberry. We already knew it was very unstable and were planning a safe ride but hearing it thru you as well made us extra cautious and we all got home today!!!!!!

While riding at Forester on Monday we saw a steep well supported slope that had been climbed by 2 sleds earlier that appeared to be popping out in a few places in 8’X6’ squares about 1’ deep between the sled tracks. They did not run anywhere, just popped out in a pile and sat on the slope. They were close to the bottom of the hill. It was probably 30-35 degrees and a 300 yard climb. Nobody had seen this before and were wondering if you have. My thoughts were that there was a lot of pressure on the snowpack and had it not been supported there could or would have been an avalanche. I realize that it is hard for you to say for sure not seeing it for yourself but would appreciate an educated guess. Rob S.

Hi Rob, Where was your camera!!! Sounds like a cool sign of unstable snow. May not have created an avalanche simply because the slab was not cohesive (connected) enough for the fracture line to travel anywhere. Can’t really speculate too much without a photo though.

Thanks for the note. We are always interesting to keep in the loop with what people are seeing out there. Glad that y’all made it home safely! Lori Z.
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Randy Zacaruk, photos from Barkerville, BC February 16, 2010.

Sleds climbed up on the viewers left of this picture and then Randy dropped down on the edge of this windslab.

Check out the cracking that was triggered by his sled.

The slab was a little resistant and didn’t fully release until a second sled continued down the unstable patch.

Pay attention to signs of instability like this and take care on slopes with similar conditions. Continue to apply the skills learned in your AST 1 and AST 2 to improve your skills in recognizing variable snow conditions.
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Hey Lori and Randy! Feb 22, 2010
First of all thanks for the continued CAC special warnings, I want to relate a story from Friday Feb.19 2010

It started out as a trip with just myself and a close friend who never gets out to the mountains. Before I knew it everyone at our mill knew we were going. Our group size (which should be a controlled issue) went from two up to six in a matter of hours.
Thursday morning when I logged onto the CAC website and read the bulletin the rating was Moderate and it seemed like the same old broken record that I had be reading over the past couple weeks, it mentioned the week layer of hoar 20cm down.
Thursday night I was busy loading up and didn’t check the CAC until Friday morning just before I left the house. All the sudden it was updated to Considerable and it mentioned “The current weak layer of surface hoar is producing avalanches that may occur on lower angles and be wider/larger than you would expect.” Wind loading was also mentioned.
That got me thinking about my group and how I was the only one with avalanche training and how you mentioned that most avalanche fatalities actually occur when the danger is rated as Considerable. I talked to my co-worker a little about avalanche safety on the way out in the truck but not as much as I should of. He did not have a beacon so I made sure he had one of my spares.

I told everyone in the parking lot that we weren’t out there to ride beyond anyone’s abilities and that if they didn’t feel comfortable to let me know and we would change our plans accordingly, however those were just words to make everyone feel better, I was determined to make it up on the glacier. On the way in the group did awesome looking out for each other and I didn’t notice any avalanche activity until we rode up a slope that had been hardened by the wind.

At the top we seen the avalanche shown in the pictures above, it looked like just a small slide until we made our way down through the bottom. At the top we were only 2km from Mount Sir Alexander. I really wanted to press on and get there, however one guy in our group seen the slide and wasn’t so sure. We all went to bottom but him, he was getting his breathe and taking his time. I had told the group just before we crested the hill to stick together because of crevasse hazards as we were only 100m from where Kory fell in with his sled last year.
Once we were at the bottom of the slide and in the sun people began to play around on some small slopes which made me a little uneasy. Then all of a sudden one guy goes climbing up to the right of the slide you can see in picture above and a second sled follows up straight behind him.

I start telling my buddy, “what the hell are those guys doing?! That guy is going to cut the face of that hill and bring it down onto the second sled.” Just as the words left my mouth the hill came down.
The sled lower on the slope quickly made his way to the left of the slide and into the old avalanche debris. Then he got up onto his sled and got ready to jump clear. Meanwhile the guy who started the slide was still on his machine and in control, he was content to just ride it, then he thought ‘I better try to ride out of the bottom of this thing in case it takes me under and sets up.’ He did out run the avalanche. Both of them had eye balls like saucer plates once they made it out. I had just put my camera away because I wanted to get out of the area.
The picture below shows the M1000 once we dug it out and got it turned around.

The slope is south facing and the time was about 2 p.m. the slope is 30 degrees. CAC Forecaster Anna Brown pretty much nailed that one in her bulletin!

Once I was back with in cell range I phoned my wife Lori and told her what happened, then she said “Yeah well didn’t you read that email Lori Zac sent out with the Special Warning!” The answer was no. I had logged on to the internet Friday morning to the CAC site to see the bulletin but did not check my hotmail account to see your email. My bad… C.W.

Hey C.W. Thanks for sharing your story. You are certainly right how fast things can go sideways even when we are trying to keep things in order.
Sledding is so different from skiing, hiking or climbing. We cover so much terrain so fast that it is super important that all guys are playing with the same game plan. Alert riders with ‘avalanche eyes’ sure makes a team more cohesive and a whole lot easier to manage without feeling like a nag.
As you experienced, travel habits and terrain and snowpack observations that seem so obvious to a rider with training aren’t necessarily within the radar of an unaware companion. A lot of the key avy safety messages seem like common sense, the thing is… we aren’t born with common sense…it is learned. It is always man’s choice to learn the easy way (in advance with guidance from experienced people) or wait and learn the hard way (in the moment through trial and error). I think your buddies might be ready for the easy way now!!

Glad to hear that everyone was ok. Maybe this will shake a few new guys out of the trees for our next avy class up there! In the meantime get them to check out the Free Online Avy Training that is listed in the side bar on the right side of this webpage! See you next season, Lori Z.
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Hi Lori. Feb 25/10
Keith and I were riding Fernie area for 6 days and noticed quite a few avys. A few were caused by sidehilling snowmobilers. The layers are not that stable as we were tought. They were mostly slab avalanches varying from 8 to 18 inches in thickness on the fracture line. We found buried hoar about 12 to 16 inches deep in many areas.
Thanks again for educating us, as the group decision to not climb Heartbreak on Sunday helped, as there were 4 avys when we rode back on Tuesday. We turned beacons to search for the heck of it and found no signals.
See you next year for more fun stuff, Level 2.
Ed D. (Hopefully I’ll send pics soon)
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While riding in Eagle’s Pass, Feb 28 we saw a fair amount of natural and sled triggered activity. Mainly on slopes 35 degrees and steeper. We used main trails to travel around and enjoyed the fresh snow in low angle terrain.


Later in the day, the guys thought that they would poke up the trees. I laughed and let them know that I would hang back with my beacon ready. Sure enough…they triggered this small slab and buried a sled up to the handle bars. ....told ya so! Gotta hate it when the girl is right! ;)


Slab avalanche remotely triggered (from up on the ridge). Notice the 2 frost layers. Both are likely to trigger by a sledder. Avalanches are likely to propagate wider as the upper snow layers become more bonded and have to reach further to find a weak point to stop the cross slope propagation and create a flank (side fracture).


Compression test results from a low point on the same slope CTM15 SP. Very fast shear at 5 taps from the elbow. Popped out the same two layers.

Candles to Remember

Please CLICK HERE to be redirected to the current webpage

Breakfast Television Edmonton

Lori Zacaruk was invited back as a guest on the Breakfast Television show in Edmonton, AB on February 12, 2010.


(CLICK HERE to view the interview.)

STAY TUNED. LORI WILL BE APPEARING ON BT CALGARY, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19..VIDEO TO BE POSTED SOON!

During the interview, BT host Ryan Jespersen, refers to this video clip of a skier that was caught in an avalanche. The skier’s helmet camera records the entire experience through to the rescue.


(CLICK HERE to view the entire clip.)

It is unbelievable footage. Fortunately, this man was successfully rescued by his properly trained and equipped partners.

Once an avalanche is triggered the clock starts ticking…
WHETHER YOU ARE READY OR NOT.

Kind of reminds me of a live television interview!!
No such thing as a ‘retake’...
Everything happens so fast…
You have very little control…
You find yourself running on autopilot…
Before you know it its all over…
You walk away…
Your mind is overflowing with all those things that you ‘coulda’ or ‘shoulda’ done.

No matter the intensity or importance of any situation you may find yourself in, it really all comes down to this; being prepared and confident that no matter what life throws at you, you can look back feeling that “while it may not have been perfect, I am proud of what I did accomplish.”

Would you have any regrets?
We are our own toughest critics. Keep your avalanche skills and gear in top notch shape. Remember…there are no ‘retakes’.

The Rick Mercer Report

Check out CBC’s Rick Mercer in Jasper National Park as he takes great pleasure in dropping bombs out of helicopters and acting as a buried target for an avalanche rescue dog.

Steve Blake, Jasper Park Public Safety specialist and President of the Canadian Avalanche Association, holds a pretty straight face as he sets Rick up for a successful day of blowing stuff up.

CLICK HERE to view the YouTube clip.

Early Season Avy Accident

While the base of the snowpack is generally solid this year, it didn’t start out this way. This article is a reminder to take care in early season bottomless fresh powder.

Anna Brown, an avalanche forecaster with the Canadian Avalanche Centre, explained that the snowpack was unstable because of the continuous storm systems coming through the area.

“It’s still sitting lightly on the terrain,” she reported to the Revelstoke Times in November 2009. “It hasn’t pressed in, it hasn’t had time to bond together, it hasn’t had time to squish in to the terrain and really set up.”

File this info into your avy safety databank and draw from it each fall season. Learn from the frightening close call that these four sledders experienced.

“You start to hallucinate, go in and out, and then it just goes to your mind, well, I’ll just go to sleep, it will be OK,” he told the Times Review. “You think in your head at that time it’s going to be okay, but the reality is it’s the worst possible time. You actually want to close your eyes and go to sleep.”

Cooper was anything but OK. Completely covered in snow for more than..”

CLICK HERE to be forwarded to the full article from the Revelstoke Times Review, Nov 26, 2009

Obvious Clues

Is Fernie in trouble for next weekend? How is the risk there?
Regards, Sam D.
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In the planning stages of any backcountry trip always review the most recent Avalanche Forecast available on the Canadian Avalanche Centre’s website.
http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/bulletins/regions

Simply click on the area of the map that you wish to go to. Carefully read each line of the report. Note the weather forecast included in the report and pay attention to the actual weather while riding. Consider how any variations in the actual vs. forecasted weather may affect the general bulletin ratings for the slopes in your riding area.

The bulletins really are your best source for general guidance before you go.

Attend an AST1 class to really help you get the most out of the Bulletin reports. Every season the recipe in the snowpack is different. Refresher classes are recommended to keep your observation and assessment skills sharp!
CLICK HERE to see this season’s avalanche classes.

While online, follow this link to use the Interactive Avaluator Trip Planner.

Avaluator Sample

Once you are in the field the 7 Obvious Clues, noted in the AVALUATOR card below, should be continuously monitored. Conditions can change with elevation, aspect (orientation to sun and wind) and time of day.
By keeping this list top of mind you will be more likely to avoid a dangerous situation. The more of the Obvious Clues that you check off the list, the more your situation resembles a past fatality.
Of course a score in the red does not mean that an accident is certain, but it usually indicates that the odds are higher of triggering an avalanche in these conditions.

The more riders in your group that are gathering these clues, the more chance you have of truly catching the majority of Nature’s warning signs. It is just like building a puzzle….the more pieces that you can gather, the better chance you have of truly interpreting the picture.

Send us your photos of Obvious Clues gathered during your sled trips. Over the next couple of weeks we hope to add more details to this article and including examples of each of these Obvious Clues.

Avalanche burial - helmet cam video clip

React vs. Respond

Have you noticed that problems just seem to be ‘bumps in the road’ to some people, yet that same problem might completely overwhelm and immobilize other people?

Watch this video clip. A skier with a helmet cam was caught and fully buried. His camera recorded the entire thing including audio. It is eerie listening to his breathing as it gets faster and more shallow.

Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska from Chappy on Vimeo.

Be sure to read some of the notes. “Chappy” has shared a fair amount of detail about the behind the scenes activities and conversations.

What is the difference? Why do some people ‘respond’ to a problem and others ‘react’?

Over the past few seasons students have asked us to…
CLICK HERE to be redirected to the rest of the story.

Flickr, Facebook and Zac`s new Forum

NEW FOR ZAC’S !
(Now I am almost as web savvy as Monica, my 10 year old daughter!)

ZAC`S TRACS DISCUSSION FORUM
http://www.zacstracs.com/forum/

We invite you to share your avalanche stories, photos and comments. Trial and error hurts and experience teaches. Pass along your years of stories and observations to speed up the learning curve in our sled community!

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FACEBOOK

Check us out on Facebook as well.
Show your support by signing up as a fan while you are there!

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FLICKR

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zacstracs/

Over the years we have gathered bundles of photos and we hope that Flickr will be a good venue to share these. We`ll be sure to post a thread in Zac`s Discussion Forum when we upload new sets to this Flickr account.

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PWL 2007-08

Weather is the architect of avalanches. Snow isn’t the only creator of avalanche hazard. More often it is the weather events that happen between the snowfalls that create instabilities….rain, wind, frost, cold temps, warm temps… Some of these layers morph and bond within a few days….some layers persist for many weeks. Every year the blueprint is different. What is the blueprint this year??
CLICK HERE to read the report, ‘Persistent Weak Layers and the Winter of 2007-08’ compiled by CAC forecaster Karl Klassen.
It is a detailed look at the deep weak layer problem that much of our backcountry is facing this season.
This report was updated Feb 27, 2008.

Note: While the blueprint discussed in Karl’s report is from a previous year, the info is all relevant. A good discussion of frost and terrain use is included.
Be warned….get your reading glasses and save this report to your hard drive! This is a detailed reviewt!! Should the report generate any questions feel free to shoot us a quick email for clarification. :)

The video clip below was shot by Genevieve Chabot for the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center (Montana, USA)
The discussion relates to a snowmobiler triggered avalanche at Buck Ridge ~ Feb 16/08. The slide involved a very dense windslab sitting on a layer of facets. At the deepest point the crown fracture measured 7 feet.

Another example of a persistent weak layer is a layer of surface hoar or hoar frost. If the frost is not destroyed by sun, wind, warm temps, rain, human activity… AND is buried by a new layer of snow, it can remain as an unstable layer in the snowpack for a long time. Frost tends not to bond to itself or the other snow layers and is resistant to metamorphism or structural change once protected within the snowpack.

Frost freshly formed on the surface.

This picture is from Chappel Creek, near Valemount, BC on Febuary 17, 2008. (Considered the Feb 25 layer as this is approximate date that the frost layer was buried.)

Frost preserved and sandwiched between snow layers.

During our avalanche course on March 3/08 a snow pit was completed approx 12 km up the Quartz Creek trail (very near the old sign-in box.) In this pit the frost layer buried on Feb 25 consisted of very large crystals sitting on a 2cm ice crust from previous rains and warm temps. A terrible combination.

On March 3, 2008 this extremely weak layer was only buried by a few cms of low density snow.

Our sleds, footsteps and and the jump test in the video below, were simply crushing right through the fresh new snow and into this frost layer. These types of activities help to mix up the layers and punch holes in near surface weak layers, in effect, introducing small pockets of stability.

Here is Zac’s Tracs first attempt at a YouTube video upload. You can see that during this test on Mar 3/08 we don’t see any action on the February 25 frost, but we do pop out the January 26 weak layer.

For a slab failure we need a slab. Because all of the fresh storm snow was so low density we did not see the February 25 frost layer react in the big block test in the video…only the January layer. Other snowpit tests, like the compression test and the burp test were used to show the instability of this near surface frost layer.

It is always very educational to complete an avalanche class during periods of elevated avalanche danger. There is always something dramatic to demonstrate and the participants really ‘get it’.
Just a little curious?! CLICK HERE to view our current avalanche course schedule.

To keep yourselves safe during this season, please take (or update) avalanche training, read the CAC PERSISTENT WEAK LAYER REPORT , and always check the Public Avalanche Bulletin before riding.
Click here for the Canadian Avalanche Centre’s Public Avalanche Bulletins.
Click here for Avalanche.org to access US Avalanche Bulletins.