Snowboarder missing after B.C. avalanche

One person is missing after an avalanche occurred Sunday at the Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna, B.C.

A 21-year-old male snowboarder was reported missing by his friends at 3:15 p.m. local time. Two others who survived the avalanche were rescued and released without injury.

A search of the resort's buildings, bars and restaurants will continue overnight, officials said. A search of the mountain, meanwhile, was called off once darkness fell, around 4 p.m. local time.

"We will currently continue the resort search for that person and if he is not found, we will go back to the avalanche area and will continue at first light," said the resort’s senior-vice president, Michael Ballingall.

Ballingall said officials are not sure if the snowboarder was on the part of the mountain where the avalanche occurred on Sunday morning.

"There are unconfirmed reports of where he was snowboarding today. We don’t even know if he was in the area."

Search-and-rescue teams were to meet with person who reported the man missing to get as many details as possible.

More initially reported missing

Originally, more people were thought to be missing after the incident, but they turned up unharmed at the resort.

Ballingall said patrollers watched the avalanche happen and were able to react quickly.

"At 10:56 this morning, in an area called the Parachute Bowl, on the cliff at Big White Ski Resort, an in-bound area, an avalanche occurred.

"The search [was] active literally within seconds of the avalanche taking place."

The two who were rescued from the avalanche, both skiers, were taken to a patrol hut to be examined and were later released.

Search continued throughout day

The search of the avalanche area continued throughout Sunday afternoon until darkness set in.

The RCMP was on the scene all day with two helicopters and two avalanche trained search-and-rescue dogs, along with 50 people led by the head of ski patrol for the resort. Searchers included volunteer patrols as well as a group of 13 who were taking an avalanche safety course on the mountain.

The avalanche area stretched across two acres at the bottom, he said, but was less than one metre deep.

"We are very hopeful that the search will show there is actually nobody buried," said Ballingall earlier in the day.

Many people on the mountain

After the avalanche, numerous reports were filed to the ski patrol by worried friends and family of people who may have been missing, because they were in the area at the time of the incident.

All of them were eventually accounted for except the remaining male snowboarder.

There were 10,000 to 11,000 people on the mountain at the time of the avalanche.

The Parachute Bowl is an area of advanced ski terrain near the boundary of the family oriented resort in B.C.'s interior.

Its run is rated as a double black diamond in difficulty and is directly below a ski patrol hut.