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Sicamous man killed in avalanche on Owl's Head

GPS led searchers to avalanche site where body of missing 34 year old was located.
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Members of Shuswap Search and Rescue are assisting police and many members of the Eagle Valley Snowmobile Club in a search for a missing sledder.

The search for an overdue snowmobiler on Owl’s Head has come to an end, with police confirming the missing man was killed in an avalanche.

RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Dan Moskaluk says the body of the missing sledder, a 34-year-old Sicamous man, was recovered from an avalanche slide in the Morton Lake area of Owl’s Head following a ground search.

Police and the BC Coroners Service are investigating the matter, and have not yet identified the name of the deceased.

The search was initiated early Tuesday morning March 8, after the Sicamous man’s family reported him as being overdue from a solo snowmobile excursion in the Owl’s Head mountain range. He was last seen on Sunday afternoon.

Shuswap Search and Rescue volunteers responded, with support come first light from an RCMP helicopter crew. Also included in the search and rescue effort were family and friends, members of the Eagle Valley Snowmobile Club, Eclipse Helicopter and a Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure avalanche technician, who helped assess the risk to ground crews.

Moskaluk said it was known the missing man was carrying both a GPS spot beacon as well as a transceiver receiver.

“Hampered by poor visibility, the air search was short, however successful in locating a fresh avalanche slide and a single snowmobile track,” said Moskaluk.

Police were able to obtain a pinged location from the beacon, which Moskaluk said corroborated with findings at the fresh avalanche location near Skinny Ridge by Morton Lake.

“It's a big, bad scene up here," Shuswap Search and Rescue manager John Schut reported at 11:30 a.m.

Schut said the many snow overhangs were making conditions extremely dangerous, so helicopters were being used to place explosives to set off avalanches.

"They need to do that so it's safe to work in that area,” said Schut.

Moskaluk said ground searchers were to be turned around due to continued avalanche risk. But this was just as some of them had made it to the slide area and began their search.

“The man was located deceased with the transceiver that he was equipped with,” said Moskaluk.

The man’s body was airlifted and the search concluded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Lachlan Labere

About the Author: Lachlan Labere

Editor of the Salmon Arm Observer, Shuswap Market, and Eagle Valley News. I'm always looking for new and exciting ways to keep our readers informed and engaged.
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