It’s the year of skiing and snowmobiling dangerously in avalanche-prone mountains
This is shaping up as another dangerous and deadly avalanche season in Canada's mountainous back country.
Massive snow slides are a fact of life in Alberta and British Columbia - prepared for, warned about, pre-empted where possible.
But three people have already died in avalanches across British Columbia as heavy snow loads and mild temperatures conspired to make the slopes that tempt skiers and snowmobilers dangerously unstable.
Three people were injured in separate slides near Pemberton, north of Vancouver, since the New Year dawned. A back-country skier was hurt in a slide on Monday. Hours later another man was swept into trees and less than an hour after that, six ski-tourers were caught in a slide, injuring one.
The latest death happened last Friday when a group of heli-skiers were savouring the pristine powder near Revelstoke, in southeastern, B.C., when one of them triggered a slide. Three of the four skiers buried were rescued quickly but another didn't survive. An avalanche warning had been in effect.
Canadian Mountain Holidays, which has been operating for 50 years, has had 10 fatalities in its history.
The day before, an experienced back-country skier and ski patroller died in a slide east of Pemberton.
There were 11 avalanche deaths in Western Canada last season, compared with an annual average of 14 for British Columbia alone.
According to the Canadian Avalanche Centre, there were 146 avalanche deaths from 2000 to 2010. Almost half involved people riding snowmobiles and 29 per cent claimed the lives of back-country skiers.
The 2008-2009 season was especially bad, with 24 B.C. avalanche deaths, 19 of them snowmobilers. It prompted a review by the B.C. Coroners Service on what could be done to reduce the danger, such as raising awareness of the risks, sharpening rescue skills of back-country users and improving the avalanche warning system.
Perhaps the single worst incident came in 2003, when an avalanche buried members of a ski-tour group from an Alberta school, three teachers and 14 students in the B.C. Rockies. Three guides who escaped the slide made a superhuman rescue effort but seven people died.