WTF? 3 missing in Big White in bounds avy

**bookem** · 01-06-2008, 03:46 PM

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...avalanche.html

Article indicates two hospitalized, three missing. Occurred in an are called parachute bowl.

**Shaggy** · 01-06-2008, 03:53 PM

This season is really starting to get ugly. I hope there's a big, positive update coming on this situation.

Be carefull out there people.

Originally Posted by CBC

As many as three people are believed missing and two others were rescued and taken to hospital after an avalanche Sunday at the Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna, B.C.

Emergency crews and police found the two skiers partially buried in the snow and continued searching for the missing skiers.

"We have unconfirmed reports from friends, and witnesses and people that were involved in the avalanche, and right now, two and possibly a third person is unaccounted for," said Michael Ballingall, the resort's senior vice-president.

"We're currently conducting a search that is being led by the head of ski patrol at Big White Ski Resort."

The avalanche was reported late Sunday morning in an in-bounds area called the Parachute Bowl.

**wicked_sick** · 01-06-2008, 03:56 PM

Wow. That could have been me. I usually always hit up that bowl, and I was going to go to BW yesterday (but didn't).

++ to the families of the missing skiiers, and I hope BW is able to work through this. I'm not a fan of the hill's management.

**Shaggy** · 01-06-2008, 04:01 PM

The Edmonton Sun is saying 2 escaped, "But there’s a possibility a third skier was buried in the snow". Hopfully this turns out to be a non-event, and the possible third guy isn't under the snow at all.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Cana...6/4755639.html

**powslaya** · 01-06-2008, 04:14 PM

Province has released an early story:

Avalanche at Big White injures two, others possibly buried in snow
By Matthew Ramsey, Vancouver Province
Published: Sunday, January 06, 2008

An avalanche at Big White ski resort has injured two snowboarders and there are unconfirmed reports that as many as three skiers could be buried.

The avalanche swept down the Parachute Bowl run just before 11 a.m. Two boarders were partially buried, resort senior vice-president Michael Ballingall said. They were taken to hospital with undisclosed injuries.

Ballingall said there are unconfirmed reports that there could be three other skiers buried, but he stressed those reports are unconfirmed.

Ballingall said there are 40-45 volunteer ski patrol, professional ski patrol, Canadian Avalanche Centre, RCMP personnel and a police helicopter at the scene along with two specially trained dogs. The centre's avalanche experts just happened to be conducting a training exercise on the mountain Sunday.

"It's an active search and rescue right now. To this time we have not found anybody. There are some very talented people up there," Ballingall told The Province at 1:30 p.m.

He said the slide covered about four acres of the 56-acre bowl, on both sides of the chairlift. The snow debris covers an area of about two acres at the bottom of the slide. He did not know the depth of the debris.

Ballingall said the resort near Kelowna has seen at least 50 centimetres of snow accumulation in the past two weeks and Sunday is the first "blue sky" day in weeks. Temperatures have also gone up and were reported at -4 C at the time of the slide. The mountain boasted a 201-cm base Sunday.

Ski patrol checked the Parachute Bowl Sunday morning before opening the area to the skiing public, Ballingall said.

"They deemed it to be safe," he said.

A witness on the chairlift said he saw a slab of snow break off and panicked skiers trying to get out of the way.

Canadian Avalanche Centre forecaster Greg Johnson said anyone heading into the backcountry in southeast B.C. should be cautious.

"The southeastern part of B.C. has a considerable avalanche risk right now," he said.

An avalanche in an closed area at Whistler Mountain killed one man and seriously injured another last week.

Did you witness the avalanche today? Please e-mail us at tabtips@png.canwest.com or call 604-605-2030.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ne...2abc6a&k=45939

**alive** · 01-06-2008, 05:12 PM

Thats just crazy. I have a couple of friends up there that were taking that Avi course there today. Pretty sure they weren't involved, but talk about getting a lesson. Hope every thing turns out OK...

**snoboy** · 01-06-2008, 05:15 PM

My post before I saw this thread:

Inbounds slide, probe lines in action as of now. 2 caught and OK, 2 people missing, unknown at this point whether they were in the slide or not.

Parachute Bowl area. News reports say the debris is covering up to 2 acres.

From CBC radio 3 o'clock news.

Other links say as many as three msiing:

Google news search.

**alive** · 01-06-2008, 05:15 PM

more info here...

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news...9-1-.htm#36389

**ryank** · 01-06-2008, 05:22 PM

Not what I wanted to hear. Or anyone for that matter.

There was a 2-man burial yesterday at Big Red Cats - both people safe. For those of you who have been to that region of BRC's tenure, it's pretty flat and consists of trees, mostly new growth after lumber clearing and some old growth. I don't think I'll be going in the backcountry in that area this year.

**Huckin eh?** · 01-06-2008, 05:29 PM

I'm getting speechless with all these inbounds avys day after day.

+++++Vibes+++++

**snoboy** · 01-06-2008, 06:01 PM

Latest CBC report makes it two people still missing.

4acres, 1' deep, deposit 2 acres.

**snoboy** · 01-06-2008, 06:57 PM

Now I am on SAR standby for an incident 25km east of Big White... another avalanche.

**snoboy** · 01-06-2008, 07:01 PM

Breaking news...

Search called off for now...

2 of the missing have been located in the resort area.

Only 1 missing (21 yo snowboarder) now, reported missing at 3:15PM.

again CBC radio news

**snoboy** · 01-07-2008, 01:08 AM

Quite a few good pics at castanet.net

**ryank** · 01-07-2008, 01:14 AM

Originally Posted by snoboy

Quite a few good pics at castanet.net

That does not look like a 1' crown. Wow.

**ryank** · 01-07-2008, 01:16 AM

**moose pit** · 01-07-2008, 10:25 AM

One still missing

**PulverSchwein** · 01-07-2008, 12:22 PM

wow, some of those pics on castanet are crazy. Someone snapped a shot of the avy in motion from the chair. Freaky! I'd estimate the crown to be a good 4' from that pic. I can't believe it went so big like that.

Also a nice clear shot of the slide area.

here's another news report. Some people are so f'ing clueless. It was plenty big enough but 8 meters deep?? right

'I was sliding . . . with snow all around me'
Snowboarder missing as surviving skier tells of 'pretty intense' experience
Andy Ivens, with a file from Matthew Ramsey, The Province
Published: Monday, January 07, 2008

For a few terrifying moments, Steven Colk found himself in an avalanche yesterday, not knowing if he was going to live or die.

"It was pretty scary," Colk told The Province last night, reflecting on the avalanche that roared down the Parachute Bowl run at Big White, near Kelowna, around 11 a.m.

A second skier -- a 12-year-old boy -- was buried up to his mid-leg in the avalanche and was rescued.

"I had just finished landing, after jumping off a rock, and I landed kind of awkward, so I stopped," said Colk, 21, a Kelowna framer and hockey referee.

"The next thing I knew I was sliding down the hill on my back with snow all around me."

Colk survived by moving his arms in a swimming motion to keep his head above the sliding snow.

"It started just a bit above me, pretty much where I was," he said.

"I tried to stay above the snow so I didn't get buried.

"I was on my back almost like treading water. It was like, if you were in rapids flowing down a river, except it was snow and ice.

"It was pretty intense.

"When it all stopped I was buried up to my waist, just above my hips."

Colk figures he was swept 300 metres down the double-black-diamond run -- steep, difficult terrain.

"I lost my skis and poles in the slide," said Colk.

"Once I pulled myself up, I started making sure everyone around was all right."

Steven's mother, Gail Colk, said from her home in Chemainus: "I'm on my knees thanking God that his life was spared.

"Not many people survive an avalanche."

Ballingall said the missing snowboarder's first name is Lee and he works in the housekeeping department of the resort's hotel.

"We don't even know if [Lee] was in the area [of the avalanche]," Ballingall said.

Ballingall said a second search of the resort's hotel area and residences was under way last night.

"We've done a perimeter search of the resort to see if there are any [snowboard] tracks," indicating Lee had gone out of bounds.

"He's still missing. We have no idea where the young man is."

Ballingall said a search-and-rescue team would spend last night at the volunteer ski patrol hut at the bottom of the hill and would resume searching at dawn today.

The avalanche covered about 1.6 hectares of the 22.6-hectare bowl on both sides of the chairlift, and almost a hectare at the bottom of the slide.

Ballingall said the avalanche was up to eight metres deep in some places and stripped the hill down to bare rock in some spots.

"It snapped off pine trees [about 20 centimetres in circumference]," he said.

"It was very powerful."

About 50 searchers, 13 of whom were taking a recreational avalanche-safety course elsewhere on the mountain at the time, rushed to the rescue.

"The whole bowl just slid down," said witness Jeff Macri.

Ballingall said it is the first time in the resort's history that an avalanche has struck an in-bounds ski run while it was open.

"The chairlift in that area opened on Friday," said Ballingall.

He said the ski patrol cleared the run of avalanche dangers before the first skiers arrived yesterday.

aivens@png.canwest.com

**ryank** · 01-07-2008, 01:27 PM

Yesterday, at approximately 11:00 am, members of the Kelowna RCMP rural detail were dispatched to an incident at the Big White Ski Resort. They were informed that an avalanche had occurred in the Parachute Bowl. The RCMP immediately began working with the Big White Ski Patrol in their search efforts.

Originally 6 people were believed to be involved in the slide, however they have all since been accounted for. Police then received a report of a missing 21-year-old snowboarder. He was last seen approximately one half hour before the slide, and it is unknown for certain if he was involved in the avalanche. He has still not been located at this point, and subsequently the search of the slide area continues today. The RCMP helicopter, two Police dogs, Big White Ski Patrol, and local Search and Rescue personnel will be on site this morning to continue with search efforts.

Due to the fact the this is a missing person’s investigation at this point in time, and there is no way to confirm that the missing man was in the avalanche area, we are releasing his name to the public. 21-year-old Leigh BARNIER of Australia is an employee of a private company up at the Big White Ski Resort. He was last seen around 10:30 am by his friends up on the ski hill. He advised his friends that he was going to do “one more run”, however it was unclear where he was headed with his snowboard. He is described as 5"10 with short brown hair, wearing a dark blue ski jacket with red and white on the arms and dark grey and black ski pants. If anyone has seen someone matching this description or did so at the time of the avalanche, they are asked to contact the Kelowna Rural RCMP at (250) 768-2880.

Let's hope they find Leigh.

**skadams.ca** · 01-07-2008, 01:43 PM

Wow - I skiied that exact line on Dec 31. Chair was closed at the time but all of the terrain was open. Some of the best turns of the road trip- waist deep blower in the entire bowl. Saw a bunch of people bootpacking up other sections of the bowl in areas that had slid previous days. Very surprised about the location of this slide as the proximity of that avysection to the gates meant that line could be easily skiied and had been despite the chair being closed.

Vibes to those involved

**snoboy** · 01-07-2008, 02:25 PM

CBC Radio news again:

Leigh's friends say that he was supposed to be headiing away from that area and skiing elsewhere (Backside) at the time. However they also say that he is an avid facebooker/emailer, etc, and there is no activity on that front.

Hopefully he is holed up somewhere...

RCMP Infrared heli on the way. (That'd be the one they use to look for grow-ops.)

**ryank** · 01-07-2008, 03:46 PM

I keep thinking back to the tree well incident at Revy, but it seems unlikely considering the amount of skier traffic Big White gets.

**snoboy** · 01-07-2008, 06:32 PM

Sounds like a body has been found in the slide by the avalanche dogs. No confirmation that it was Leigh, but the odds seem to point that way.

Condolences to family and friends of whoever this was.

LT · 01-07-2008, 06:47 PM

Damn this sucks...+++++++Vibes to friends, family and all those involved.

My wife and I always wear our beacons if there is any new snow regardless of where we are skiing, we get some funny looks, and there are times I feel like people probably are thinking we're just trying to look "core" but this is why, so fuck 'em. Be safe out there.

**teamdirt** · 01-07-2008, 07:16 PM

I was just watching the news, sad indeed. to add to the kaos 3 seperate avalanche deaths yesterday all in the south interior of BC. the other 2 were snowmobile avalache related deaths.