BC to crack down on snowmobiling after deadly avalanche

Gwendolyn Richards and Larry Pynn Canwest News Service

British Columbia’s top law enforcement officer on Monday announced plans to crack down on snowmobiling in dangerous areas, two days after an avalanche triggered by a snowmobile killed two people in eastern B.C.

The new rules for off-road recreational vehicles will come into effect in November 2011, B.C. Solicitor General Kash Heed said Monday.

While announcing the new regulations, Heed also criticized the participants in Saturday’s Big Iron Shootout, an annual, loosely organized “high-marking” event in which snowmobilers ride their souped-up machines as far up a slope as possible.

“As you enter one of the trails there is a sign that clearly shows it’s extreme conditions and the avalanche dangers.

People that went into the area ignored that warning and they made the decision to actually go in there,” Heed said Monday.

Shay Snortland of Lacombe, Alta., and Kurtis Reynolds of Strathmore, Alta., died and dozens of others were injured after a wall of snow swept down Boulder Mountain, just outside of Revelstoke, B.C. Both 33-year-old men worked for an oil and gas firm specializing in transporting gas drilling rigs.

About 30 people armed with poles and rescue dogs continued to search the slope on Monday, even though no one had been reported missing.

RCMP officials said it will take a long time to investigate the deaths and determine if any charges can be laid.

RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said officers want to speak with anyone who helped organize the event, which had previously been criticized over safety and environmental concerns.

The event is believed to have been organized by Dave Clark - known in snowmobiling circles as “Ozone Dave” - a Calgary man who owns The O Zone, a sunglasses store.

Clark’s name, Moskaluk said, has “cropped up several times” as police begin to investigate the avalanche.

“It’s a name we’re aware of. People keep repeating it,” he said.

“The $1 million question being posed is: Could there be conceivable thoughts of criminal charges?” Moskaluk said. “We have to look at how this took place. Is there any criminal offence that took place?”

Moskaluk said officers will have to rely on technical experts to map out the scene and examine what factors led up to the avalanche, as well as gather information about the event itself and speak with those who participated.

“We’re interested in speaking with as many people as possible,” he said.

Survivors told harrowing stories of being swept up by the falling snow as others described the chaos and panic as they searched for their friends.

Witnesses said the avalanche was triggered by a snowmobiler during the competition.

“It just completely wiped out a group of 150 or 200 snowmobilers,” said Greg Blair, who saw the avalanche coming and fled on his snowmobile. “Everybody just disappeared — tossed, thrown, taken with the snow. The amount of snow that came down was unbelievable.”

The slide was so powerful it “scrambled the machines and wrapped them around each other,” according to one eyewitness.

Witnesses said they heard people screaming as they frantically searched amid the wreckage of snowmobiles littered in the snow.

“You could see people’s arms, legs and heads sticking out of the snow,” said Calgarian Dewinton Blair, who was at the mountain with his brother and uncle. “They were yelling for help and trying to get out. There were a lot of broken legs, arms and wrists.”

As the chaos subsided, survivors organized a line and worked methodically to find missing people, sticking probes into the snow and digging.

Four people were seriously injured - two of them critically - and taken to area hospitals.

Ben Basaraba remains in hospital in the B.C. Interior city of Kamloops with a broken neck.

The 24-year-old told the told Kamloops Daily News he doesn’t plan to snowmobile again.

“It just broke the whole mountain loose. It just came down so fast. Nobody could move,” he said from his hospital bed on Monday.

Nineteen people have now been released from hospital, police said.

Despite Heed’s announcement, the head of the B.C. Snowmobile Federation said snowmobilers have the right to ignore avalanche warnings — even if it means risking their lives.

“Right now it’s personal choice,” federation executive director Les Austin said in an interview from Revelstoke.

“I don’t believe there needs to be greater regulation. We need greater education and stuff like that so people can make better-informed decisions. That doesn’t happen overnight.”

The Canadian Avalanche Centre had issued a special warning on Friday that backcountry snow conditions were “very dangerous.”

“Conditions in the mountains for the past six or seven weeks have been very tricky,” Karl Klassen, a spokesman for the centre, told reporters at a Sunday news conference. “The snowpack is still very unstable.”

Revelstoke is located in eastern British Columbia, about 550 kilometres northeast of Vancouver and 400 kilometres west of Calgary.

There have been at least 10 avalanches in the Kootenay-Boundary area since Friday, as snow continues to pile up, creating weak layers in the snowpack that can cause major slides.

National Post