19 snowmobile deaths this year highest on record

A 24-year-old Sherwood Park man was killed in an avalanche when he was snowmobiling near Valemount on Good Friday.

RCMP attended the scene in the Monashee Mountains, about 25 km south of Valemount, near Clemina Creek on April 10 at about 3 p.m.. 

According to reports, a group of friends were highmarking, or taking turns riding straight up a slope as far as possible, for several hours when one of them triggered the avalanche. He was carried into a deep gully at the base of the slope and buried beneath two metres of snow. 

His companions found him using a transceiver and probe and dug him out, but attempts to revive him were unsuccessful and he was declared dead on the scene. The name of the man has not been released.

The death occurred less than a week after video of a snowmobiler carried down a slope in the Monashee Mountains was published on Youtube.

Taped on April 4, the unbelievable footage shows a snowmobiler ride straight up a slope and pass the high marks left by previous riders, before the snow crumbles beneath his sled. A few seconds after disappearing into the snow, he rides out at the bottom uninjured.

The 19 snowmobilers killed in avalanches in Western Canada this season is more than double the worst season on record, which was nine in 2002-03. Six other people have died in avalanches.

The Canadian Avalanche Centre (CAC) suggests the reason for the high proportion of snowmobile fatalities is that backcountry skiers and heliskiers are “spooked” and have altered their behaviour, while snowmobilers have not.

Though avalanche forecasts are improving, the North Columbia region, where Valemount is located, still has a “serious” avalanche rating, according to the CAC.