5 dead from Alberta Friday...avalanche near McBride, B.C

[TOM4CWB]

An avalanche near McBride, B.C., has killed five snowmobilers, say local authorities.

RCMP say they were notified of two separate GPS beacon activations in the Renshaw area east of McBride around 1:30 p.m. PT, at which point they activated the Robson Valley Search and Rescue Team.

There were at least three separate groups of snowmobilers caught in the slide, say RCMP. Six to eight people lost their snowmobiles and had to be shuttled off the mountain.

[TOM4CWB]

CBC on the avalanche area;

[video=youtube;]http://www.cbc.ca/i/caffeine/syndicate/?mediaId=2682801342[/video]

[TOM4CWB]

Comments on CBC,

Preventable deaths... well certainly in hindsight...

"Uncle Remus
Terrible. Every one of you snowmobilers that thinks it is going to happen to somebody else: smarten up. The machines are advanced and powerful enough to get you in all kinds of places you really should not go. It appears to me that the beacons, avalanche reports, search and rescue technicians are giving a lot of people a false sense of security. And those are the smart ones: there are still many young fellows who can find $10,000 for a machine but head down the trail with little or no thought of what's for lunch, let alone how many things could go awry."

>STEREOTYPE<
@Alfie Alfredo snowmobiling is more dangerous than driving a car per hour spent in it. Probably 10 to 30 people in Canada die in avalanches a year, with snowmobilers and self propelled backcountry travellers being the most prone. The chance of dieing well mechanized skiing is approximately 1 in 100k days. Any guiding outfit that takes you out in the backcountry makes you sign a waiver and it basically says there is no way they can absolutely keep you safe"

Willow Flats
Always sad to hear of these incidents. Condolences to everyone involved, family, and friends.

@Uncle Remus

I'm "Everyone one of you snowmobilers"... Sometimes you can do everything 'right' and still have a tragic event. Cars crash, planes fall from the sky... sometimes things happen the best training and plans don't account for.

My beacon, shovel, probe and airbag don't give me a false sense of security... they are a constant reminder that being buried would be the worst way imaginable to die. That's pretty good motivation.

newwesterner
@uncleangus - he is right. If they thought it would happen to them, they would not have gone. Life is full of people who do dangerous things because they think it will not happen to them. Bad things happen only to other people, that is a fact of human thought"

Just like with farm safety... we all know how close each one of us is... to THE END. Either for ourselves... those who work for or with us... and many family members.

Keep Safe. Live to stay alive. AND uninjured.

The melted snow/ICE is horrible... broken bones... equals dead people.

Risk is always with us... now more than ever.

STAY SAFE!

[sumdumguy]

Sad, each one was somebodies son, somebodies friend, maybe somebodies husband and dad. i think I too assumed that the gps transmitters, and beacons could keep you safe, but no, its false security.

[farmaholic]

High risk activities without respect for the dangers that are present...

Sorry to hear.

[TOM4CWB]

From Global News Edmonton:

“That’s normal riding conditions this time of year,” he said.


Two other people were injured, and one was sent to hospital in stable condition. Nobody is unaccounted for.

READ MORE: Vegreville man identified as one of 5 Albertans killed in B.C. avalanche

On Saturday, the B.C. Coroners Service confirmed the identity of the victims:

-Vincent Eugene Loewen, 52, Vegreville, AB
-Tony Christopher Greenwood, 41, Grande Prairie County, AB
-Ricky Robinson, 55, Spruce Grove, AB
-Todd William Chisholm, 47, of St. Albert, AB
-John Harold Garley, 49, Stony Plain, AB

Chances of surviving plummet after 10 minutes: avalanche researcher

Seventeen people from four different groups were caught in the McBride avalanche.

Mason said survivors pulled bodies from the snow before rescue crews arrived. Since there were multiple separate groups snowmobiling at the time, he didn’t know how well survivors knew the dead.

“They located and dug them out very quickly. They did an excellent job themselves,” he said.

Asked how difficult it is to extract a body from an avalanche, Mason replied, “It’s sort of like shovelling concrete.”

“Two SAR technicians were on scene almost immediately as they were snowmobiling in the area just prior to the slide occurring,” wrote Cpl. Dan Moskaluk in a statement.

“Throughout the afternoon, SAR Technicians assisted with the rescue of several snowmobilers belonging to at least three separate groups that were caught in the slide. In conjunction with assisting those individuals, SAR technicians also tended to the search for suspected buried persons in the slide.”

[biglentil]

Avalanche beacons and probes don't protect you from the blunt force trama of a wall of hard snow hitting at speeds of up to 300km per hour.

[Partners]

Sad...Seems to happen every yr..