A sign showing an avalanche hazard warning near Mount Renshaw outside of McBride, B.C., on Saturday January 30, 2016. Two people were killed and two others were injured in two separate avalanches in B.C. Monday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER – Two people are dead and two more are hurt in separate avalanches in British Columbia’s backcountry.
Heli-skiing operator CMH Nomads says two guests and a guide were caught in an avalanche near Revelstoke on Monday.
CMH president Rob Rohn said in a statement that two of the three people were fully buried by the slide and were located by their transceivers.
Both guests were unresponsive when they were pulled from the snow and were later pronounced dead in hospital, he said.
The guide was transferred by ambulance to Kelowna General Hospital and is in stable condition.
“The thousands of guests who ski with us each winter are our family,” Rohn said.
“It is impossible to put into words the sorrow that we feel and the sadness that is shared by our guests, their families and all of our staff.”
An investigation is being co-ordinated by the BC Coroner’s Office and the RCMP.
B.C. Emergency Health Services says it was called Monday afternoon following a separate slide near Cherryville east of Vernon, B.C., where one person was taken to hospital.
There have been multiple serious avalanches in B.C.’s backcountry so far this season, resulting in five deaths.
Experts have warned that this season’s snowpack across much of the province is particularly unstable with a weak layer of snow crystals near the bottom that was buried in late November.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 24, 2023.
