Person Buried 20 Minutes in Avalanche Lives

Search and rescue specialists say that a woman was buried for 20 minutes before being rescued in the North Shore mountains north of Vancouver. According to the North Shore Rescue (NSR) Facebook page, she was snowshoeing with a partner near Pump Peak on Mount Seymour when the avalanche struck and buried both of them.

“Neither of them had any avalanche rescue gear,” the NSR said in the Facebook post below. “After the first snowshoer was able to dig himself out with his hands, his companion was nowhere to be seen, and his shouts were met with silence. He called 911 for SAR, and after speaking with a SAR manager, began searching the avalanche debris. Thankfully, he was able to locate a snowshoe poking out of the snowpack, and from there, was able to uncover his companion who had been buried upside down.”

Avalanche forecaster Simon Horton told the CBC that in recent days the South Coast mountains have been consistently at Level 4 on its five-level danger scale, he said. “Most areas had over a metre of snow on the weekend, causing dangerous conditions, and we’re expecting another big snowfall on Monday night,” Horton said.

There have seen several avalanche incidents over the past few weeks. A 19-year-old male skier from Kelowna died this weekend after being buried in an avalanche in Kananaskis Country – read the Avalanche Canada report here. Earlier today we reported about several backcountry skier fatalities here, and always check avalanche conditions before heading out here.