People just don't get. For the 2nd week in a row, another avalanche death...

The back country avalanche forecast is currently rated considerable to extreme. We had a weekend hike/snowshoeing trip planned but once again have had to call it off due to the high avalanche risk.

A massive avalanche in British Columbia's mountainous backcountry on Friday killed at least one snowmobiler, injured two others and sparked a search for anyone else caught in the second deadly slide in the area in the past week.

The RCMP confirmed the mid-afternoon avalanche happened on Eagle Pass Mountain, 15 kilometres west of Revelstoke, not far from where two snowmobilers were killed and 31 were injured in a slide March 13.

"The avalanche … has been categorized as a large slide," said Cpl. Dan Moskaluk.

News article link

I sympathize with the SAR folks. It's hard when they have no idea how many people are in trouble. So they spend more time in dangerous areas, exposed to greater risks, while the RCMP check parking lots for abandoned vehicles.

Clearly, some people need to add "stay at home" to their list of options. It's hard to see the same (mostly) preventable tragedy over and over and be sympathetic. One newspaper article described it as "compassion fatigue."

Two more people died yesterday in another avalanche. This time it was heli-skiers. No matter what the sport you partake, the BC high backcountry avalanche threat is extreme right now.

A third avalanche to hit B.C. in a week has claimed the lives of two French heli-skiers, police say.

According to a news release issued by the Valemount RCMP, the avalanche in Wells Gray Provincial Park, near MacAndrew Lake, buried three skiers around 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

One skier was pulled from the snow uninjured, while the other two were found unconscious. The two men, aged 19 and 65, could not be resuscitated.

I can understand why the SAR people are so frustrated when there are such idiots out on the slopes. If they didn't impact the safety of others, I'd suggest that the SAR folks stay indoors and let Darwin take care of avalanche starters.

It's tempting to lump all these events together, but that's not necessarily instructive.

I'm a bit surprised that a heli-skiing operator would drop off tourists when the avalanche forecast is set at "considerable" through the whole area.

Another follow-up story, but this one has some good news with the bad.

"Burnaby resident Carl Mulherin, 33, became separated from his snowmobiling companions Saturday while the group was on Top of the World glacier, north of Whistler.

A helicopter search team spotted Mulherin on the glacier Monday afternoon. He told rescuers he had dug himself an ice-cave that helped him avoid extreme cold and had enough food to survive the two days. Police said he did not require medical attention."

The story also has also details on the heli-skiing operation, which seems to do everything possible to mitigate the hazards of an inherently high-risk sport.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/03/22/bc-avalanche-deaths.html

He was a lucky man and did a few things right. The area he was found in is remote, rugged and unforgiving. I have been in this same general area in the summer and would not want to be lost and stuck out there in the winter.

Here is Google map link of the area. The town of Pemberton BC is approximately 50 kms (30 miles) east of the glacier known as "Top of the World." Whistler, one of the just completed 2010 Olympic sites is 30 kms (18 miles) south of Pemberton.

I like this quote from another news website:

"Mulherin expressed a lot of relief at not having to spend another night in the snow cave," Steers said.

In fact, Mulherin was such a cool head, that he reported to rescuers that he was enlarging his snow cave and "making some renovations and decorations" on Monday, when he realized he might have to camp out for another night.

Doing interior decorations of your snow cave... I love that, it shows the right kind of attitude! You improve whatever you can

Now this, however, is stretching things too far:
RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk noted there are far fewer avalanche deaths related to heli-skiing than snowmobiling.
"I think that's part-and-parcel and indicates the steps and measures that that industry has taken over the years to safeguard as best they can their clients," Moskaluk said.

Without knowing the relative numbers of high marking snowmobilers and heli-skiers the number of deaths in those two sports mean squat and zero.

I am sure that an exclusive service as heli-skiing use the best available avalanche expertice. Knowing what you're doing is a huge safety asset. But that doesn't make you immune - when you're accepting calculated risks things will go wrong at one time or other.