Two people have died in an avalanche outside of a ski area boundary near Golden, B.C., Avalanche Canada said Thursday.
Avalanche Canada says a group consisting of five skiers and one snowboarder were in an area known as Terminator 2.5 when an avalanche was triggered. Four members of the group were involved, Avalanche Canada says.
The avalanche buried three members of the group. One was partially buried and extracted. Two were fully buried and did not survive.
A second group of snowboarders who were lower in the track when the avalanche was triggered were impacted by the slide but were not injured.
The avalanche measured 115 metres wide and 950 metres long with a crown depth of 1.5 metres, Avalanche Canada said, and “ran on a weak layer of facets near the base of the snowpack.”
The latest fatalities bring the total number of avalanche deaths in B.C. in 2023 to nine, including two backcountry skiers who died Saturday in an avalanche approximately 40 kilometres south of Tatla Lake, B.C., two off-duty officers with the Nelson Police Department who were on a ski trip near Kaslo and two brothers from Pennsylvania on a guided heli-skiing trip in B.C.’s Interior.