Updated (again): Eight Snowmobilers Feared Dead After British Columbia Avalanche

Search efforts are currently taking place in the wilds of southeastern British Columbia after a Sunday avalanche is feared to have taken the lives of eight snowmobilers.  Warnings had been issued in the area two days prior to the avalanche.  The avalanche occured near Fernie, B.C.   Avalanche technicians and search and rescue personel are currently headed to the area in an attempt to locate the missing.  Three people did survive, with one still listed as being in a local hospital.

Avalanche technicians have been called in to assess the situation and make sure that another avalanche doesn’t occur while searchers are in the area.  The specially trained technicians will be looking at the avalanche threats in the area, then dropping charges from helicopters to displace the threats before others are allowed in.

Mr. Wilkes, who knew all of the men in their 20s from the small community of about 4,000 people, said they are “hoping for a miracle” but conceded there was a very slim chance they could have survived for a long night under the heavy snow.

He said they had all the equipment with them including, a device that when the person pulls a chord a bubble is formed providing additional air for the person trapped in the snow. However he said it wouldn’t have protected them from the elements.

This is coming from The National Post.

Even with the added safety and security measures that the snowmobilers had with them, authorities fear that the cold temperatures may be the biggest threat to survival.  Temperatures are currently listed at -15° celsius.

Once all avalanche threats have been displaced, Search and Rescue will enter the area with dogs trained in avalanche rescue.  All of the missing are thought to be from the same small  town and include some who were related.  Further details of the missing are currently unavailable until further information about the situation is known.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that there may be survivors and remember everyone in our thoughts and prayers.

Update: KTVB TV out of Idaho is reporting that two avalanches occured in the same area yesterday.  They are also noting that the three survivors had to make the hard decision of leaving the others behind and that deaths were being reported before search and rescue got there.  The extent of all of this is still not known until official reports from the area start coming in.  It’s not sounding good.

Update II:  CJAD AM 800 has the following update:

Two groups of snowmobilers were out in a popular backcountry area about 40 kilometres south of Fernie when one group of seven was buried by an avalanche.

A second group of four snowmobilers was buried by a second avalanche when they rushed to the scene in response to the first group’s cries for help.

I will post more as I get it.

Update III:  The Chronicle-Herald is reporting that NO fatalities have been confirmed as search and rescue have still not made it to the scene.  This contridicts earlier reports saying that fatalities had been reported with this incident.  They also offer the following:

Forecasters at the Canadian Avalanche Centre had described the conditions in the Fernie and Lizard range on Sunday as “spooky” and able to generate avalanches easily capable of killing a person.

If the forecasters are calling the avalanche ’spooky’, things have got to be really bad.  It is known that charges have been set off in the area to remove the avalanche dangers, but thus far, authorities have only made it halfway to where the avalanches occured.