1 dead, 3 injured in northern B.C. avalanche

One person has died and three are injured after an avalanche hit a group of heliskiers in northern British Columbia on Tuesday afternoon.

A spokesperson for Last Frontier Heliskiing told CBC in an email the fatality and injuries happened when five people were caught in the avalanche at the remote Bell 2 Lodge, around 150 kilometres north of Stewart, B.C. 

The B.C. Coroners Service has confirmed it is investigating the death.

B.C. Emergency Health Services said one patient was taken to hospital by air ambulance after it was notified of an avalanche at 3:37 p.m. Tuesday.

It has been a particularly bad year so far for avalanche fatalities in B.C., with the death toll now at 13 since January.

The deceased include two backcountry skiers who died near Tatla Lake, B.C., two off-duty officers with the Nelson Police Department on a ski trip near Kaslo, an Alberta man snowmobiling south of Valemount, B.C., two brothers from Pennsylvania heliskiing in B.C.'s Interior and three German tourists heliskiing outside of Invermere, B.C.

Avalanche Canada has compared this season's snowpack with conditions last seen in the winter of 2002-2003, when 25 people lost their lives in B.C.'s backcountry, making it one of the province's worst years on record for avalanche fatalities.