Man. snowmobiler killed in B.C. avalanche

A Manitoba man has been killed and an Alberta man was badly injured when their snowmobiles were caught in an avalanche in British Columbia's southern Interior region.

RCMP said the slide occurred Monday as four people were riding in an area near Sicamous, B.C., about 500 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

Wayne Bamford with the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria confirmed one of the survivors had two broken legs and was airlifted to hospital in Kamloops.

Two other men from Alberta were uninjured and were able to leave the site by snowmobile, RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said in a statement release Tuesday morning. "It looks like it was about a four-foot slide, four-foot deep of snow, sloughed off up the mountain and caught two of the gentlemen in the trees," said Piper.

"Snow probably pushed them into trees and that's probably what caused their injuries."

The body of the dead man was recovered Tuesday afternoon.

The man's name was not released at his family's request but he was described as an Alberta resident from Manitoba and in his mid-30s, police said.

He also was reported to be an experienced snowmobiler and familiar with the Sicamous area.

Warnings issued about conditions

The Columbia mountain area, which includes the area of the slide, has been on high alert for avalanches for the past 10 days, according to John Kelly, the operations manager at the Canadian Avalanche Centre.

"We've been warning about a persistent weak layer in the snow pack that's been present since late December and has sort of come into play in the first week of January," said Kelly.

"It's been causing a lot of near misses and avalanche problems and we've been warning about it quite aggressively in our bulletins for the past week or so," said Kelly, adding he expects volatile slide conditions to continue through next week.

If there is a part of that slope was not released in the avalanche "they will have to make a very careful assessment as to whether it's safe to go in or not — all in [the] aim of making sure that the site is secure so hopefully no other people are put at risk by this tragedy," said Kelly.

Last week, one person died in an avalanche while snowmobiling in the Mount Mackie area, near Rossland, B.C.