The search for survivors in McBride is now over
Posted Jan 30, 2016 2:18 pm.
Last Updated Jan 30, 2016 5:27 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MCBRIDE – A search and rescue official in British Columbia says survivors of an avalanche that claimed five lives looked shaken.
Dale Mason of Robson Valley Search and Rescue was on hand as the survivors landed in the community of McBride after being pulled from the scene of the avalanche.
He says some were injured and had little to say from what was a traumatic event.
Search and rescue crews say all of the victims from the avalanche were in their early 40s to early 50s.
They had pulled the bodies of five fellow snowmobilers out of the slide area.
The five people killed in the slide were all from Alberta.
Mason says survivors pulled bodies from the snow before rescue crews arrived.
There were three separate groups snowmobiling at the time, so he didn’t know how well survivors knew the dead.
He says there was a “considerable” avalanche hazard where the yesterday’s slide occurred and noted there were warning signs posted at trailheads.
The coroner’s service identified the victims as:
Vincent Eugene Loewen, 52, of Vegreville.
Tony Christopher Greenwood, 41, of Grand Prairie County.
Ricky Robinson, 55, of Spruce Grove.
Todd William Chisholm, 47, of St. Albert.
John Harold Garley, 49, of Stony Plain.
