One person is dead after they were caught in an avalanche while snowmobiling in northeastern B.C.
Avalanche Canada says the individual was riding in a chuted area near Hasler Flat, about 280 kilometres north of Prince George, on Saturday (Jan. 27). They were around tree-line elevation, when a slab of snow broke off and buried them.
Avalanche Canada says the slide ran for about 250 metres and was rated a 2.5 in severity, off of a five-point scale. A 2.5 level avalanche is somewhere between a level 2, which can bury a person, and a level 3, which can bury a car, destroy a small building or snap a few trees.
The national avalanche safety organization says a group of other snowmobilers were able to extract the person, but that the individual was already dead. Because they faced the risk of another avalanche themselves and it was growing dark, the snowmobiling group wasn’t able to collect data from the scene, Avalanche Canada says.
The person’s death is the first avalanche fatality reported by Avalanche Canada in B.C. this winter season. A Squamish man was killed in an avalanche while climbing in Alberta in November, however.
In a post to social media, the organization said warm weather is destabilizing the snowpack in many parts of the province and that avalanche conditions are forecast to be dangerous on Monday.
“In many areas, travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended.”
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