Five snowmobilers are dead after "a very large," likely human-caused avalanche Friday afternoon in the Renshaw area, just outside of McBride.
The victims were part of at least three separate groups of about a dozen people swept in the snow.
McBride RCMP said it was notified from at least two GPS beacons calling in distress at around 1:30 p.m.
Two Robson Valley Search and Rescue Team technicians were attending “almost immediately as they were snowmobiling in the area just prior to the slide occurring,” an RCMP press release said. It also dispatched one helicopter to the area to assist.
By 5 p.m., RCMP had confirmed five people had died.
“Efforts by the RCMP and SAR are continuing in making a determination that all other snowmobilers that were in the area are accounted for,” said Cpl. Dan Moskaluk in a statement. “Six to eight other snowmobilers lost snowmobiles in the avalanche and are being shuttled off of the mountain.”
Throughout the afternoon and evening, rescue crews and paramedics helped to remove people from the area and tend to the injured, he said. Authorities weren't able to confirm Friday night that everyone had been accounted for. Local RCMP were visiting motels and making inquiries in the community to see if anyone was missing, Moskaluk said.
At least eight snowmobiles were buried in the slide, he added.One person was sent to the hospital in stable condition and another person had very minor injuries but chose not to go to the hospital, said BC Emergency Health Services.
BC Coroners Service spokeswoman Barb McLintock called it “a very large avalanche.”
She said two coroners were sent from Prince George at around 3:30 p.m. Friday who are expected to report back Saturday morning. McBride is about two hours east of Prince George.
Rick Thompson, a councillor with the Village of McBride, described the area on Mount Renshaw as a popular sledding area about 15 kilometres from the townsite and said the news came as a shock.
"It's devastating. As soon as you hear about something this tragic, you immediately begin to think about all your friends and family that you know, and the acquaintances you do know who may be out there sledding," he said. "I was out at Chinese dinner this evening when the news broke, and it was, like, 'oh my God, who was out there?'"
Thompson said a contributing factor was doubtless the weather, which he described as "not terrific."
"We had a great amount of rain down in the valley early in the week, which meant there was a lot of fresh snow, about three feet I heard, up on the mountain. It's been hot and cold, which creates poor conditions, so avalanche conditions are high."
The news prompted an outpouring of condolences from avid snowmobilers.
"This is truly heartbreaking news," a member of a snowmobiling community forum wrote. "It feels, when hearing news of other snowmobilers passing, like losing a family member. Never met these folks, but I am sad to have lost them."
Karl Klassen of Avalanche Canada said the "very large, significant" avalanche appears to be human-triggered, but he did not elaborate.
"There are layers of concern in the snowpack in many parts of this region (and others) and a fairly significant weather event added rain and snow to the snowpack over the last few days followed by clearing and cooling today," he said in a statement. "This may have produced stresses in the snowpack capable of producing large avalanches and this condition could take several days to settle and bond."
He is warning people to be cautious this weekend.
RCMP said no further information would be released pending the completion of the search effort and completion of notification of next of kin.
This is the second fatal avalanche near Prince George in less than a week. Last Saturday Angelo Kenneth Carpino died after snowmobiling in the Torpy Trail area in the McGregor Mountain Range. The 41-year-old Prince George man was with a group five sledders in the Evanoff Provincial Park, which is about 120 km east of Prince George.
In November 2011, another experienced Prince George rider, Dallas Mayert, 40, died in an avalanche in that same area.
Chances of survival in an avalanche
A leading expert says that after 10 minutes of being trapped in an avalanche, chances of survival drop dramatically as the snow hardens like concrete.
Pascal Haegli is Simon Frasier University's research chair in avalanche risk management. He says it's nearly impossible to dig yourself out of an avalanche once you've been buried, and that without proper rescue equipment, chances of survival nearly disappear.
He says that people should not rely on search and rescue crews in the event of an avalanche. Haegli says that he hasn't heard exactly what happened in this case, but that human-triggered avalanches can occur when people disturb different layers of snow, called snowpack.
For instance, if a thin layer of icy snow sitting on top of looser snow is disturbed, it can cause all the snow to tumble down. He says avalanches can also be purposefully triggered using explosives, to clear the way for skiing or driving.
- with files from Canadian Press and Mark Nielsen
