STOCK IMAGE OF AN AVALANCHE. INQUIRER FILES
OTTAWA, Canada — Three heli-skiers – all foreign nationals – have died in an avalanche in western Canada’s Kootenay Rockies, bringing the total snow slide fatalities this season to a dozen, police said Thursday.
Four others, including a guide, were injured when their party of 10 was caught in the avalanche at around noon Wednesday in the area of the Panama Mountain Resort, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Calgary, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Corporal James Grandy said in an email to AFP.
The injured, some of whom are in serious condition, were flown to a hospital in Invermere and are expected to survive, he added.
Their names and nationalities were withheld pending notifications of next of kin.
This winter has been one of the worst on record for avalanche fatalities in Canada’s westernmost British Columbia province, with two off-duty policemen and two brothers from Pennsylvania among the dead.
Avalanche Canada warned in an early January advisory of high risks of “large, scary avalanches” due to an unstable snowpack.
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