An avalanche killed a male snowmobiler in southeastern British Columbia on Sunday, according to news reports and local authorities.
Before the fatal slide, a group of three snowmobilers, including the victim, were riding in a zone below Thunderwater Lake in the Forster Creek drainage, Avalanche Canada stated in an incident summary. He triggered an avalanche on a steep wind-affected slope and was completely buried.
With assistance from others in the area, the group conducted a companion rescue, but the buried member of their group didn’t survive.
The avalanche was 40 meters wide with a crown depth between 50 and 60 centimeters. It qualified as a 2.5-sized slide on the five-point size scale, according to Avalanche Canada. Size 2 and larger avalanches are big enough to kill or injure a person.
Avalanche Canada, in its incident summary, wrote that the avalanche is believed to have been released from a layer of facets in the snowpack buried in January.
Columbia Valley Search and Rescue (CVSAR) said in a statement that it responded to the incident with assistance from RK Heliski, providing medical aid and transport.
In a statement provided to the CBC, Corporal James Grandy of the RCMP’s Southeast District said that the victim was brought to the Invermere Hospital by helicopter, where they were pronounced dead “despite all the life saving measures.”
Today, Avalanche Canada forecasts that avalanche danger across much of southeastern British Columbia remains “considerable,” indicating human-triggered avalanches are likely.
Earlier in the week, Avalanche Canada elevated the danger rating to “high” in some areas of the province amidst warnings of heavy rain and wind from Environment Canada, the CBC reports.
Canada’s first avalanche fatality of this winter season took place only a few days before the snowmobiler died in the Forster Creek drainage. On February 17, one member of a two-person group was killed by a slab avalanche on Kapristo Mountain near Golden, British Columbia.
In the United States, avalanches have killed 14 people this winter season, according to data from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC). Eight of those fatalities happened this month.
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