Snowboarder dies during snowcat skiing excursion
By Nelson Daily Staff
Kaslo RCMP and the BC Coroners Service are investigating the sudden death of woman who died while snowboarding on a Wednesday, Dec. 29 afternoon.
The woman was a guest with Retallack Snow Cat Ski Lodge, said RCMP senior media relations officer Cpl. Dan Moskaluk from Penticton.
At around 3 p.m. the 32-year-old woman was amongst a group of skiers descending a run. At one point the group noticed that one woman was missing.
The guide, returned up the hill and used his avalanche transceiver to locate the female snowboarder and found her partially submerged head first in the snow.
The guide pulled the unconscious woman out of the snow and found that she was not breathing. CPR was started and the female was transported down the mountain.
She was then taken by BC Ambulance to the Kaslo Hospital. CPR was continued for several hours at the Kaslo Hospital. CPR efforts were unsuccessful and the woman was pronounced dead at approximately 6:15 p.m.
The area where the group had been skiing is known as the Stove Pipe and is located in the Retallack Lodge area of operations along Hwy 31A, approximately 20 kilometres west of Kaslo.
“The location is an open area and had a low avalanche risk level at the time,” said Cpl. Moskaluk. “This death is not related to an avalanche incident. The female snowboarder is a resident of the Kootenay area of British Columbia and was known to be an experienced snow boarder.”
The preliminary information and observations indicate that the lady took a fall backwards in the freshly fallen snow, which caused her to fall headfirst downhill submerging her upper body in the deep snow.
The Kaslo RCMP and BC Coroner are confirming that the death is not suspicious in anyway and are continuing to gather details from all other parties involved in the accident.
