The B.C. RCMP is correcting its statement on an avalanche that killed three heli-skiers and sent a fourth to hospital with critical injuries near Kootenay Lake earlier this week.
In its previous statement on the March 24 avalanche – shared Tuesday, March 25 – the B.C. RCMP said a helicopter pilot who was approaching the group “observed an avalanche and sounded the siren.”
Mounties sent an updated version of the statement on Saturday, though they did not specify what had changed.
The updated statement reads: “Though there was no audible siren, the pilot did issue an Avalanche Alert via radio.”
One group of skiers was able to avoid being caught in the slide, but the other group of four was swept away into the tree line.
The victims of the slide have since been identified as 44-year-old Whistler man Jeff Keenan, 53-year-old Kaslo man Jason Remple and 45-year-old Idaho man Alex Pashley.
The group was on a tour with Stellar Heli Skiing and was waiting in a staging area below the tree line of Clute Creek watershed when the slide came down.
Keenan, a professional snowboarder who turned his focus to the business side of the sport, was in Kaslo, B.C., working on a project with his wife and fellow professional snowboarder Leanne Pelosi.
In an emotional post on Instagram, Pelosi said she was the one to dig her husband out of the snow.
“What a gift to see you one last time. I tried my hardest to revive you. It’s unbelievably hard to survive right now. Clinging to all memories of you,” she wrote.
- Read more: Wife of B.C. snowboarder who died in avalanche dug him out, tried to revive him
- Tributes pour in for 3 heli-skiers killed in B.C. avalanche
With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson
