The bodies of three Alberta men have been removed from the slopes of Mount Gerald, West of Golden, as of 9:00am Sunday morning.
The group of four men, two fathers (aged 48 and 50) and their adult sons (both in their 20s), came to the Golden area from the Donalda, Alberta area for a weekend of snowmobiling, when a tragic avalanche claimed their lives Saturday afternoon at approximately 4:50pm.
The cause of the avalanche has been placed on the controversial, and often dangerous, snowmobile sport known as high-marking.
“Two of them were high-marking, they were climbing up the mountain on their machines, and that triggered the avalanche. And there were two at the bottom of the mountain watching,” Sgt. Troy Durand of the Golden/Field RCMP said during a press conference Sunday afternoon.
The triggered avalanche let loose from the mountainside, bringing down with it tons of snow; the fatal slide buried all four men immediately.
The group had been equipped with the basic avalanche gear of transceivers, probes and shovels. However, all four men were completely buried, essentially rendering their gear useless.
A second party of approximately 20 snowmobilers witnessed the event and immediately sprung into action. All four men were located within 45 minutes, utilizing transceiver tracking devices, but the rescuers were battling time. By the time all four men were uncovered, three had already perished; the surviving male was the first of the four to be uncovered.
“Transceivers are deemed as one of the three essential pieces of back country safety equipment along with shovels and probe sticks. In all likelihood the survival of the one of the four men can be accounted to the fact that their transceivers quickened the rescue attempt, it remains unfortunate that the remaining three perished,” RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk stated in a press release.
The lone survivor of the ordeal has been released from the Golden & District Hospital after suffering minor injuries and shock symptoms. The families of the victims have been assisted by Victims Services in Golden before returning to Alberta on Monday.
“Our hearts go out to the entire family and the community of Donalda. It is a horrible tragedy. The backcountry is always tempting and it has been a great snow year, but this is just a shame. The town and staff express our deepest condolences,” Mayor of the Town of Golden, Christina Benty remarked.
The happenings have been an all too common occurrence in British Columbia this winter, but certainly is far from being acceptable. It will be a tough time for the small community of Donalda having lost these individuals in such an unfortunate accident.
