Avalanche
A backcountry skier was killed in an avalanche on 11,364′ Mt. Victoria in Banff National Park, Canada yesterday, Sunday, September 25th, 2016.
“We suspect that the first skier triggered a slab avalanche that we class as a size one. It has a crown that was probably 20- or 30-metres wide and 10- to 15-centimetres deep.”
“This small avalanche was able to push that skier over a very large cliff, 200- to 300-foot cliff.” – Tim Haggerty, visitor safety specialist with Parks Canada
Credible sources are telling us that the deceased skier is Trevor Sexsmith who had just posted an incredible video of skiing Mt. Warren in nearby Jasper National Park, Canada this month. We cannot officially confirm that it was Trevor at this time.
On September 13th, 2016, 2 climbers were injured in an avalanche in Jasper National Park.
At 10am on Sunday, Parks Canada got a call from the the avalanche victim’s skiing partner.
The zone that the two skiers were passing through is known as “The Death Trap” due to the high risk of avalanches, rockfall, and icefall in the area.
The two skiers had headed up Mt. Victoria in the morning but were turned around by strong winds and deteriorating weather.
On the ski back down, they triggered an avalanche that swept one of the skiers off a large cliff.
“It was likely a human-triggered avalanche. The two had travelled up together and they were basically descending the same route they had climbed together.
They were both very experienced skiers — it’s not unusual for them to be skiing any month of the year up in the alpine.” – Tim Haggerty, visitor safety specialist with Parks Canada
The Association of Canadian Mountain Guides had issued an avalanche warning for the Banff area on their website on Saturday, the day before the fatal avalanche, on their website saying this:
“Today we observed human triggered avalanche activity at 3,000 metre elevation on Mt. Victoria and we expect this condition to exist throughout the Lake Louise group. Strong winds in the area have stripped away any soft snow and created wind slabs which appear to be easily triggered.” – Association of Canadian Mountain Guides, September 25th, 2016
Rescuers were unable to recover the body of the avalanche victim on Sunday due to strong winds. They returned at first light on Monday and recovered his body.
“It wasn’t just a simple matter of flying in there and grabbing him. The cold air comes down off the mountain and it wants to flow right down through that gap so it makes it very, very turbulent in there for the helicopter.” – Tim Haggerty, visitor safety specialist with Parks Canada
This avalanche was likely due to a snowstorm that dropped 20-40″ of new snow last week.
This is first avalanche fatality of winter 2016/17.
yesterday was Sunday, sept. 25th not 26th as the caption under the 1st pic states.
my bad. thanks, Bryan. on it.