VANCOUVER—The avalanche deaths of two skiers in British Columbia’s central Interior this month have prompted an emotional plea about this season’s dangerous conditions from the head of a volunteer search and rescue team.
Rick White, the chief of the Central Cariboo Search and Rescue team in Williams Lake, announced Thursday that one of the people killed in a slide on Potato Peak on Feb. 11 southwest of Williams Lake was a member of his team.
Calling the member’s death “devastating,” Smith’s statement highlighted the “horrifically unforgiving” avalanche risks this season across the province.
Nate Fochler, a ski guide in Revelstoke, B.C., said this year’s snowpack has indeed created dangerous conditions in the backcountry, with spikes in freezing temperatures creating what’s known as a “deep persistent weak layer” of snow….