Third BC slide....

[G-Force]

http://www.am1150.ca/news/565/1104088
Not sure if the clicky worked or not, appears another slide has claimed the lives of two more outdoor enthusiasts in our backcountry
Thoughts and prayers to all families and friends touched in this heinous manner to date.

Third BC fatal avalanche, this time in Valemount
Sun, 2010-03-21 05:25.
Local News
There's been another fatal avalanche in BC - the third in just over a week.

It happened in Valemount on Saturday at about 3pm MDT, when an avalanche came down in Wells Gray National Park near MacAndrew Lake.

RCMP Corporal Dan Moskaluk says, "The avalanche occurred when a commercial licenced Heli-Ski Operator had a group of ten skiers and two guides descending a run in the Azure River Drainage area of the Cariboo Mountain range, Wells Gray National Park."

Three of the skiers were buried in the avalanche. Of the three, one managed to escape injury, while the other two were killed.

Moskaluk says, "[They] were located with the assistance of their avalanche beacon locators however, were found unconscious. First Aid attempts by an on scene physician were unsuccessful in resuscitating the two individuals."

Both victims were from France, aged 65 and 19. Their names are not being released at the request of the family.

The avalanche was categorized as a class 3 to 3.5. The fracture line of the avalanche occurred at an elevation of 2300 meters, approximately 300 to 400 meters wide and ran for a distance of 700 to 800 meters.

The Valemount RCMP continue to assist the BC Coroners Service with their investigation into the deaths.

Denise Wong - Kelowna

 

[SledsWest]

Albert Einstein once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".

WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!!!

 

[G-Force]

Trying to remember the last time we had this many avy incidents that included fatalities, been a long time. At what point do we shut it down for the year and stick to farmers fields? Is there now not enough evidence that our back country is currently not a smart place to be? Do we really need the Government to step in and tell us to stay home and mow the lawn, paint the fence, anything but head for the hills?
THEY WILL close these areas to us, as we (all back country users, not just sledders) are giving them all the evidence they need to prove we cannot self regulate our usage on our own!!
People please, live to fight another day to sign all the petitions and attend all the MLA meetings we undoubtedly have coming to keep our terrain available to us in the coming months and years, so our children can enjoy the same freedoms that we have to this point.
Ride safe !!
G.

 

[notch88]

So sad to hear that. I have been watching the news all weekend, listening watching what the media has to say about us, and it is not good. However if this is true why hasn't the media spoken a word about this. If it was another sledding avy, Word would have smudged all over the place.

 

[smokindave]

I wonder why they have not named the heli skiing company that dropped these skiers off with two qualified guides and have three get burried with two fatalities?
The media had no problem posting Ozones name and his main business that has nothing to do with sledding in the media,even though the event was over for the day when the avy occured.
I wonder if our friend Mike has anything to do with this.

 

[columbus]

The irony about this type of heliskiing and all the crap Mike Wieglie has been talking about the recent slides involving sleds is quite simple: They ski ALL AT THE SAME TIME. They break the most important safety rule every run in order to save time to get more runs in. By putting everyone in the slope at the same time they are putting everyone at risk at the same time. 3 buried, 2 dead-WTF-in a controlled environment like guided heliskiing there is no excuse for this!. If these heli ops want to come out all high and mighty and talk about how safe and great they are then they should start obeying BASIC avalanche terrain travel protocols. No matter what your level of training and experience, the basic rules apply.

 

[mt.sledder]

have a look at these stats and compare them to the focus the media is putting on us.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/roadsafety/tp-tp3322-2006-page3-590.htm

 

[DARKO]

Cheers to Mike Wieglie, Master Crow Eating winner 2010.

How's that sh!t taste Mike ya fucttard.

Enjoy it you pole smoker.

 

[Trashy]

^^^ Not quite the words I was gonna use, but I was thinking the same thing.


An avy can hit anyone, anytime.
Even those who made such arrogant expressions.

Its pretty important to be humble out there, or Mother Nature just might look after that for you.

 

[dycker]

Cheers to Mike Wieglie, Master Crow Eating winner 2010.

How's that sh!t taste Mike ya fucttard.

Enjoy it you pole smoker.

Thats harsh! People still died, have some respect.

 

[snowmanx]

I wonder why they have not named the heli skiing company that dropped these skiers off with two qualified guides and have three get burried with two fatalities?
The media had no problem posting Ozones name and his main business that has nothing to do with sledding in the media,even though the event was over for the day when the avy occured.
I wonder if our friend Mike has anything to do with this.

Good question. I dont' agree with everyone saying stay off.....doesn't matter what the conditions are, there is always a chance, WHENEVER you go out to the backcountry.

Government geting involved is NOT the answer. I still think sledding, skiing is relatively safe. I'm sure if someone did a search there numerous other activiteis that cause a lot more deaths and have a lot more social impact than a few deaths in the backcountry every year. (I'm not trying to make light of it, honerstly, any deaths are too many, but unavoidable, IMO).

Why is smoking still legal, drinking, driving a car, walking down the street, and so on and so on.

As been said many times before, everyone is responsible for themselves, I hope I don't die sledding, but if I do, it was my choice to go, just like it is my choice to drive, walk down the street, or doing whatever. I'm sorry, don't seem to be so cavalier, but I think people just get too uptight about this sort of thing....especially sledders.

Use your head out there, and stay off the hills when the avy risk is high.

 

[EagleRiverDee]

I think the media is kinder to "green" sports like skiing (I'm not SAYING heli-skiing is "green" but I think the media thinks it is). I think that's why the double standard.

To the people who are preaching about "insanity" etc...odds are the people dying in these avy's aren't participating in these discussions with us. They may not even pay much attention to the news. The people who died in this avy may have felt safe due to the fact that they were paying "experts" to guide them. The two dead are French...they probably weren't even aware of the recent avy's.

Damned shame, all these deaths.

 

[DARKO]

Thats harsh! People still died, have some respect.

Harsh ? It's directed at Mike and the comments he has made towards sledders. Its not made towards the people that died, learn to read within the context it was written. Quite obvious whom I was directing that too, using his name and all.......

As for respect, I have zero towards him. Where's the media on this one ? Pretty quiet isnt it, but if it had been sledders, he, the media would be all over us. Again.

 

[bigbird]

Heard it was CMH, not Weigle.

 

[DARKO]

It was Weigle on the news for the past week bad mouthing snowmobilers and the sport of snowmobiling.

 

[Vertical-Extreme]

just seen this covered on the cbc national. they said there was a heliski avy and they showed footage of the Turbo avy... go figure

 

[bigbird]

It was Weigle on the news for the past week bad mouthing snowmobilers and the sport of snowmobiling.

I meant it was CMH that lost the 2 skiers yesterday.

 

[SLEDIOT]

]Trying to remember the last time we had this many avy incidents that included fatalities, been a long time[/B]. At what point do we shut it down for the year and stick to farmers fields? Is there now not enough evidence that our back country is currently not a smart place to be? Do we really need the Government to step in and tell us to stay home and mow the lawn, paint the fence, anything but head for the hills?
THEY WILL close these areas to us, as we (all back country users, not just sledders) are giving them all the evidence they need to prove we cannot self regulate our usage on our own!!
People please, live to fight another day to sign all the petitions and attend all the MLA meetings we undoubtedly have coming to keep our terrain available to us in the coming months and years, so our children can enjoy the same freedoms that we have to this point.
Ride safe !!
G.

Im not sure but I think it was last year we lost 40 + peeps in BC Canada alone............

 

[snowmanx]

Im not sure but I think it was last year we lost 40 + peeps in BC Canada alone............

That must have been sledders and skiiers?

Anybody have a good site to find out these statistics? Harder to find on the web than one would think.

 

[backcountryislife]

I can't find it either, but I'm 97.35% sure that we lost 19 sledders just last year up there.

It really sucks to keep hearing these stories.

oh, and it REALLLY sucks to see the way that heliskiers break the one rule that intelligent bc travelers live by. I've seen in videos, but just assumed that in real life they didn't actually do that.