3 ice climbers fall to deaths
PEMBERTON — The husband of one of three ice climbers who died near Pemberton on Sunday travelled out of the backcountry on his own to alert police after finding his wife’s body at the bottom of a steep slope.
“We got the call at 1:35 [Monday] morning,” said Whistler-Pemberton RCMP St. Sgt. Steve LeClair, who went to the scene of the fall and was involved in the search-and-rescue operation.
A group consisting of three climbers and two skiers had split up on Sunday and arranged to meet later in the day. When the climbers didn’t return, the skiers went looking for them.
“We were aware that the husband found his wife at approximately 9 p.m. [Sunday] and then he had to travel out of the backcountry and then make his way to a phone so he could contact us,” LeClair said. “The husband was part of the ski-touring group.”
LeClair, who had just returned to Pemberton by helicopter from the scene about 1:30 p.m. Monday, said the bodies of the climbers were found by search-and-rescue personnel Monday within 40 metres of each other. It is believed they fell about 600 metres in the area of Joffre Peak.
The victims were a man and a woman, both in their mid-30s from the Lower Mainland, and a female visitor in her late 20s believed to be from Germany.
LeClair said the climbers had climbed up the main couloir near the top of Joffre Peak before falling.
“Today, we had good weather for climbing, but it was very steep terrain,” added LeClair, who held the news conference Monday just after a coroner’s van left the scene with the three bodies inside.
“Avalanche activity was low, so it doesn’t appear to be avalanche-related. It appears that it was a tragic slip-and-fall accident. They were all wearing harnesses and were roped together. One of the parties detached from the others and that person was found last night by one member of the party skiing in the area.”
LeClair said the climbers initially reached the area ski touring and then were climbing higher with crampons on. It has not been determined if they were ice-climbing at the time.
“It appears they were boot-packing up in snow. It’s very steep terrain and you’d need strong technical climbing skills and be very experienced in backcountry travel.”
Spokeswoman Barb McClintock said the B.C. Coroners Service is investigating.