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RCMP say a snowmobiler died while riding near Fernie, B.C., after he was caught up in an avalanche Tuesday.
Mounties say the man’s body was recovered by search and rescuers on Wednesday, and that he had been riding with all the appropriate gear and safety equipment.
Elk Valley RCMP said they were advised Tuesday that an emergency device had been activated in a remote location near Fernie, a small city in the East Kootenay region.
“Initial information indicated that a man who had been snowmobiling in the area had been caught in an avalanche,” RCMP said in a statement.
Officers and Fernie Search and Rescue responded, “but due to time of day and the fact that the area was identified as a high hazard avalanche,” they were not able to locate the victim, RCMP said.
Search and rescue members were able to recover the victim on Wednesday. RCMP said the avalanche was the cause of his death.
Avalanche Canada told CBC News in an email that two snowmobilers were riding in the area Tuesday, when the victim climbed a slope toward a ridge and triggered the avalanche.
“The subject was fully buried and did not survive,” the organization said.
Neither Avalanche Canada nor RCMP have confirmed if the other rider was caught up in the avalanche.
Avalanche Canada said on its website that the avalanche “initiated in the recent storm snow and stepped down to a buried weak layer.”
In January, the organization warned about increased avalanche risk in the southern Interior due to unseasonably warm weather.
