North Columbias, British Columbia – On Monday, March 6, 2017 a 52-year-old Austrian man was killed in an avalanche while heli skiing in the Goldstream area in the Columbia Mountains about 100 km north of Revelstoke, British Columbia.
The skier was in a guided heli-skiing group when the accident occurred. A guide and another guest had skied first. The victim was the 3rd skier in the group when he triggered the slide. The remaining skiers were able to avoid the avalanche.
Authorities were notified around 3pm that a man was injured in an avalanche. A helicopter transported the man to the hospital in Revelstoke, but he did not survive.
Avalanche Canada rated the avalanche danger in the North Columbias as “Considerable” at Alpine and Treeline.
We will update this post when more information is available.
UPDATE 3/8:
- Kurier.at and Nachrichten.at identified the victim as real estate investor Thomas Hönigsberger from Vienna, Austria.
- RevelstokeMountaineer.com reports that the accident occurred in a group of 5 skiers with a guide. The skiers were guests with Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH). CMH notes that 3 people were caught in the avalanche at 14:50. Two of them “were able to extract themselves from the snow uninjured.”
UPDATE 3/16: Avalanche.ca released their full report on this avalanche accident.
(Map Marks the Goldstream River in the Columbia Mountains, Not Accident Site)
Read more about the avalanche north of Revelstoke, British Columbia from the following sources:
- CBC.ca
- GlobalNews.ca
- EagleValleyNews.com
- Avalanche.ca Avalanche Forecast
- KelownaNow.com
- RevelstokeMountaineer.com
