A Canmore man is dead and another suffered a broken leg after triggering an avalanche south of Mount Black Prince Saturday afternoon while ski touring through dangerous conditions.
A Canmore man is dead and another suffered a broken leg after triggering an avalanche south of Mount Black Prince Saturday afternoon while ski touring through dangerous conditions.
According to Kananaskis Public Safety, a group of five skiers in their 30s on a sub-peak of Mount Warspite, south of Mount Black Prince triggered a class 2.5 avalanche 130m wide, 600m long and a metre deep. The avalanche struck the group and pushed them through a timbered slope, where they suffered numerous injuries and lost much of their gear. They were carrying avalanche beacons, shovels and probes and were all still wearing their skins when the accident occurred.
Two of the skiers who had suffered minor injuries were able to run out to the base of the Black Prince day use area and drove to Mount Engadine Lodge where they called Kananaskis Public Safety.
At 3:10 p.m., seven conservation officers and two public safety officers flew to the scene with Alpine Helicopters, where they found two party members trying to resuscitate the third. They were all heli-slung onto Highway 40, where STARS air ambulance transported them to Calgary hospital. Since the entire slope had given away, the rescuers determined it was safe enough to complete the rescue.
The deceased is a 34-year-old man from Canmore. His identity has not yet been released, although the Outlook has learned he was a local rafting guide.
Parks Canada and Alberta Parks had issued a special avalanche bulletin on Friday, warning the public of extremely dangerous conditions across the mountain parks. A deep, persistent, weak layer at the base of the snowpack, which has been overloaded with snow, wind and a week of high freezing levels.
Kananaskis Public Safety officer Mike Koppang said the avalanche risk was considerable on Mount Warspite, which isn’t a commonly used slope for backcountry skiing.
“It’s a different year. The snow pack has a lot going on. There are so many things to watch for. It takes a lot of experience to navigate through that terrain,” Koppang said. “It’s definitely a complex snow pack. The unique weather has created a lot of complex problems.”
This is the first avalanche fatality of 2015 for Kananaskis Public safety. Snow fall is well below normal this year for Kananaskis, and the warm temperatures have created unstable conditions.
