REVELSTOKE (NEWS1130) - Two people are dead and 30 others are injured following Saturday afternoon's avalanche on Boulder Mountain near Revelstoke. RCMP are now blaming the accident on human activity and say the two men killed were Kurtis Reynolds and Shay Snortland. Both 33-years-old and both from Alberta.
A search on the mountain will continue today to make sure no one else was caught in the gigantic slide, even though Mounties say everyone who was missing is accounted
for.
Up to 200 people were watching and participating in an annual snowmobiling event called the 'Big Iron Shootout' when the avalanche struck. Search and rescue crews arrived from all over the province to help in the effort.
Adam Burke of Revelstoke says he had friends at the event. "Everyone knew the conditions were terrible and they went up. It was a nice sunny day and everything warmed up and it slid."
The Canadian Avalanche Centre had issued a warning this weekend saying there was a 'considerable' avalanche risk in the area but Revelstoke City Councillor, Steve Bender, says it appears the warning was ignored during the unsanctioned event. "Sure there is going to be a huge investigation into this, because there are those who have warned that something like this could happen."
Witnesses described the avalanche as a 'wall of snow.' Steve Langevin says it was extremely fast. "We tried to escape but we got pushed by the snow. Everyone was panicking; we were trying to find people under the snow. We found two people but they were dead"
Langevin adds rescue effort began very quickly, and he helped rescue one of his friends from the snow. "I was digging the hole and then we found him, he was already blue, because you only have 10 to 15 minutes under the snow." Langevin went to bathroom before the avalanche struck, which he thinks likely saved his life. "I'm really, really, really, really, lucky."
The avalanche has been described as up to 10 metres deep and half-a-kilometre long. Langevin says many of the snowmobilers were equipped with beacons and probes.
B.C. Solicitor General Kash Heed flew over the area but wouldn't say whether the government would intervene to prevent similar slides. "When we have the extreme conditions we've had lately people have to certainly pay attention to that."
Meanwhile, a 32-year-old man from Vancouver has died while snowmobiling with friends west of Lillooet. He collapsed and died on a remote trail on Saturday.
Police say local search and rescue sent a doctor to the scene by helicopter, but the man could not be revived. His name has not been released -- and the cause of death is not yet known.