B.C. avalanche kills two people
Posted Mar 15, 2010 03:36:14 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An avalanche analysis will be done today at the B.C. mountain where a huge snowslide killed two people and injured 31 others.
The RCMP say human activity triggered Saturday’s slide on Boulder Mountain near Revelstoke, but there’s no word yet on possible charges.
Avalanche warnings had been posted, but some 200 people still came out to watch snowmobilers roar up the mountain slopes at the unsanctioned Big Iron Shoot-Out.
Many in the crowd were buried alive when the wall of snow thundered down upon them — and there were initial fears that dozens might be dead.
Among the first on the scene was Rod Romanow, who described the sight as “a war zone.”
Revelstoke Mayor David Raven says the Canadian Avalanche centre started warning people three weeks ago to use “extreme caution” in the region. He says a fresh snowfall Friday made the avalanche risk just that much higher. Local volunteers are being credited for keeping the death toll down, they spent hours digging people out of the eight-metre deep and half-a-kilometre long trail of snow left by the slide.
