An avalanche claimed the life of 1 man in southeast B.C. on Sunday, RCMP have confirmed.
He was one among three snowmobilers using within the Forster Creek space under Thunderwater Lake, about 90 kilometres southwest of Banff, when the slide got here down, in keeping with an Avalanche Canada incident report.
“One rider triggered an avalanche on a steep, rocky, northeast going through, wind-affected slope and was absolutely buried,” the report says. “A companion rescue was carried out with help from different riders within the space.”
Avalanche Canada categorised the slide as a Dimension 2.5, on a five-point scale. A Dimension 2 is large enough to bury, injure or kill an individual.
Cpl. James Grandy mentioned in an announcement that Columbia Valley RCMP obtained an SOS activation from a satellite tv for pc communicator on Sunday, indicating that there had been an avalanche and one individual was buried.
“The sufferer was taken by helicopter to the Invermere Hospital the place sadly, regardless of all of the life saving measures, they have been pronounced deceased,” mentioned Grandy.
It’s the second avalanche-related dying this season in B.C. Final week, a skier died in Golden, B.C., after a Dimension 2 avalanche on Kapristo Mountain was triggered.
Earlier this week, Avalanche Canada warned of an elevated avalanche threat in elements of the province — elevating the hazard degree to the fourth highest class, on a scale of 5. This got here amid particular climate statements from Surroundings Canada warning of wind and heavy rainfall.
“We have seen widespread pure and human-triggered avalanches already this week, and we’re anticipating that to proceed with heat temperatures and sunshine by means of the remainder of the week,” mentioned avalanche forecaster Wendy Lewis.
She added that B.C. is seeing appreciable avalanche hazard, resulting from a number of persistent weak layers within the snowpack which might be burdened by new snow and hotter temperatures.
“Individuals can usually underestimate appreciable avalanche hazard, however we do count on avalanche exercise to happen,” she mentioned. “It’s the hazard score that usually catches most individuals out and causes probably the most accidents and incidents.”
CBC Information has reached out to Columbia Valley Search and Rescue for remark.
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