Whistler, British Columbia – On Saturday, March 4, 2017 a 33-year-old skier from Vancouver was caught, buried, and killed in an avalanche near the Hanging Lake area on Mount Sproatt in the Callaghan Valley west of Whistler in British Columbia, Canada.
The incident occurred around 11:15am on Saturday. The victim was part of a group of 14 skiers who were involved in the slide. The victim was fully buried approximately 80cm deep. There were no other serious injuries.
Authorities were notified about the incident around noon. RCMP, Whistler SAR, and CARDA dogs responded by helicopter and snowmobile to the scene.
Avalanche Canada reports that “incident occurred west of Whistler in the Sea-to-Sky region. Initial details suggest the avalanche occurred on a west-facing feature. Size is estimated to be 2 to 2.5, approximately 80m in width with a 100cm crown. One critical burial was reported.” The avalanche danger was rated Considerable in the Sea To Sky region on March 4.
We will try to update this post as more information becomes available.
UPDATE 3/5:
- A handful of photos of the avalanche were posted on Wayne Flann’s March 5, 2107 blog post. On that site an update from Darryl Leniuk details how the victim’s airbag had been ripped off and how rescuers were unable to get a beacon signal and how they reverted to a probe line – only finding the victim after 3 hours of probing. Read the details here (you will need to scroll down).
- CBC.ca identified the avalanche victim as Corey Lynam, 33, of Vancouver.
UPDATE: 3/16: Avalanche.ca released their full report on this avalanche accident.
