Bodies of two U.S. snowshoers recovered
Boston-area man, woman victims of avalanche near Lake Louise
The bodies of two snowshoers caught in an avalanche near Lake Louise have been recovered.
The missing snowshoers were recovered Friday at about 10:30 a.m., after avalanche conditions were deemed safe enough to conduct the recovery operation, Parks Canada said.
The two found dead were a 32-year-old man and a 32-yearold woman from the Boston area, RCMP say.
The avalanche was in an area about 20 minutes north of Lake Louise on the Icefields Parkway, on the slopes of Mount Hector.
“The RCMP has been in regular contact with the families of the deceased since Tuesday and on behalf of the RCMP, I do want to extend our deepest and most sincere condolences to the families and friends of these two individuals,” said Cpl. Curtis Peters.
Parks Canada believes the two snowshoers were caught in an avalanche on Saturday or Sunday.
They were last seen on Saturday when they had breakfast at their hotel.
Grant Statham, the incident commander for Parks Canada for the avalanche recovery operation, said information was received from the RCMP on Tuesday that two people had not returned back to their hotel room in Field, B.C., and the contents of the room indicated they were backcountry recreationists.
“We immediately initiated a trailhead search and began looking at popular areas to see if we could locate a rental vehicle at the trailhead,” Statham said.
“At approximately 3 p.m. we located the vehicle at Hector Creek and we confirmed that it belonged to the missing people.”
Crews then dispatched a helicopter and a search team from Banff.
Two visitor safety specialists also skied up Hector Creek and encountered a large avalanche covering the trail.
Crews were unable to enter the site due to the avalanche risk in the area, which remained high the rest of the day.
Just before dark, the team was able to confirm a transceiver signal, which led them to believe the snowshoers were wearing locator transceivers.
The avalanche danger increased to very high on Wednesday and Thursday.
After avalanche control work was conducted on Thursday, crews entered the site at about 8 a.m. on Friday.
“We put six people onto the site to begin searching,” said Statham.
“Very quickly after we arrived on the site, we picked up the signals
and within 10 minutes of arriving
on the site we determined the locations of the two subjects.”
Within an hour and a half, crews were able to recover the bodies from the avalanche debris.
“On behalf of everyone at Parks Canada, our sincere condolences to all the friends and family of the people who are involved in this avalanche — very tragic, and our thoughts are with everyone,” said Statham.
The Icefields Parkway remains closed.
It is expected to reopen by Sunday afternoon.
Very quickly after we arrived on the site, we picked up the signals and within 10 minutes ... we determined the locations of the two subjects.