Historical Incidents

Incident Summary

Date

2020-11-28

Location

Pine Pass - Bijou Falls

Location Description

Approximately 20 km east of Mackenzie, BC

Province

BC

Coordinates

55.29895 °, -122.72537 °

Elevation

1680 m

Activity

Snowmobiling

Involvement

1

Injury

0

Fatality

1

Description

Several days of stormy weather with warm temperatures and winds dropped significant amounts of new snow in the days leading up to the accident. Skies broke and temperatures cooled on the morning of November 28th and SW winds strong enough to move new snow were recorded in the region. Two snowmobilers were riding in the Bijou Falls riding area towards the east side in a portion of terrain overlooking highway 97. One rider climbed high on the slope gaining a wind-exposed ridge above a rock band. The rider triggered a large avalanche, approximately 800 metres wide by 400 metres long. The crown was 55cm deep on the steep, rocky, windswept roll where the avalanche was triggered, but significantly more snow was involved at lower elevations where the snowpack was sheltered from wind and much deeper. The bed surface was a crust that formed in early November and the suspected failure layer was faceted grains on the crust. The snowmobiler was caught in the avalanche and buried in a terrain trap near the base of the slide. Their partner, who was watching from below and was not caught by the avalanche, performed companion rescue to locate and dig out the victim. The buried person did not survive.