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Photo Credit: colebullock7 via Avalanche Canada

On Sunday, a skier and snowboarder were involved in an avalanche incident on Rogers Pass reports the Revelstoke Review. The avalanche, which took place on Bruins Ridge, partially buried the skier, while the snowboarder was almost buried completely. Luckily, the snowboarder’s arm remained above the surface of the snow and he was able to manually dig himself out of the slide.

The skier triggered the slide at approximately 2:30pm on Sunday. His snowboarding partner was already 2/3 of the way down the slope at the time of the slide.

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Bruins Ridge | Photo Credit: colebullock7 via Avalanche Canada

According to Glacier National Park visitor safety technician Percy Woods, “The skier entered the slope, made a couple of turns, made a turn to the right past a boulder feature and then turned back down the fall line, and when he turned back down the fall line, the avalanche started and he was taken off his feet.” Woods then added , “he slid for approximately 150- to 200-meters… and he was swimming, backstroking his way down in the avalanche debris, which probably assisted with him staying on the surface. He stayed on the surface, was not buried and lost a ski.”

The avalanche is reported to have been about 500 meters wide and 50-100cm deep. It ran for an estimated 800 meters.

Skier Triggered Avalanche on Balu Pass Just An Hour Before Photo Credit: Jay via Avalanche Canada
Skier Triggered Avalanche on Balu Pass | Photo Credit: Jay via Avalanche Canada

The Eye Witness Account

Witnessed a size 3 skier triggered slab avalanche from the east side of Bruins ridge around 2400 m. The slab was approx. 400-700 m wide, up to 100 cm deep, running 700-900 m in length. The debris covered the lower section of the heavily used Video Pk up-track. One person ended up on the surface, and the other was mostly buried with his arm above the surface and able to dig himself out. There were no injuries.

Sumbitted by swerner on Nov 8th, 2015 at 2:30 PST

Both the skier and snowboarder were lucky to walk away without any significant injuries.

Always remember to ski avalanche prone slopes ‘one at a time.’

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