CALGARY –Rescue crews continued to search Banff National Park all day Tuesday, in hopes of recovering Sgt. Mark Salesse.
Parks Canada used a trained dog team and search technology to narrow down the search zone, and hope to resume Wednesday, weather permitting.
“Good progress in the search effort was made today but there is still a significant depth of area to search in steep and challenging terrain and the teams were not able to determine anything conclusive in today’s recovery effort,” said Parks Canada spokesperson Tania Peters in a statement.
Salesse was last seen at the Polar Circus near the Columbia Icefields on Thursday, when it’s believed a small avalanche swept him off a ledge. Officials with Parks Canada said Salesse fell 60 meters to a lower shelf, and was covered in about three feet of snow.
Parks Canada said Tuesday Salesse was not wearing an avalanche transceiver during his climb. (An avalanche transceiver or radio beacon is a device that allows rescuers to hone in on a signal and find people who are buried in snow).
His climbing partner, who was 60 meters up the ice-wall at the time, arrived on scene and saw Salesse’s footprints in the snow disappearing in the debris. He searched but was unable to locate Salesse.
There were one or two additional small avalanches which officials believe swept Salesse another 60 to 100 metres into the ravine “bowl” below.
Since the time of the accident, there has been a precipitation of a further 60 cm of snowfall. In order to secure the area for the rescue teams, Parks Canada had to do an avalanche control to eliminate loose snow from the area by detonating man-made avalanches. This would have produced several feet of packed snow on top of where Salesse is located, for a combined total depth of 15 feet or more of snow.
On Monday, four ground searchers and two dog search teams spent 2.5 hours on a slope in Banff National Park where he was last seen, said Peters.
Global News reporter Tracy Nagai was on scene around 1 p.m. Monday when a helicopter transported team members and their dogs back from the Polar Circus ice climbing route, shown in the photo below:
Many people, including Salesse’s family, say it’s unlikely he could have survived.
“Mark was swept off in a small avalanche,” said Salesse’s mother, Liz Quinn. “He fell on, for a lack of a better place, a ledge and on that ledge there’s about three feet of snow that fell on top of him.”
“We have–or had–hope that we would get better news, but because of information we were told today, those are facts. And it is not humanly possible for a person to survive what Mark has gone through.”
Quinn, who lives in Moncton, N.B., said she believes Salesse died “doing what he loved” and wouldn’t want anyone risking their life to retrieve him.
“Mark was a good person, a gentle soul…he was well-loved,” she said. “Be assured, there is an angel in the Rockies. When you go travelling, whisper his name, because he is there.”
Family say the search to recover Salesse’s body may take a week, if weather conditions permit. If not, the search will continue in the early summer after the spring thaw.
The 44-year-old is a Royal Canadian Air Force Search and Rescue technician from 435 Transport and Rescue squadron based out of 17 Wing Winnipeg.
Quinn said her son joined the military when he was 18 and turned down a mission to Afghanistan when the search-and-rescue opportunity came along. She said Salesse survived a fall during training in Colorado in 2011 and shattered his pelvis. He wasn’t expected to walk again but he managed to get himself back in shape. Quinn said she agreed to talk to the media because she wants her son to be remembered.
“I don’t want Mark to be just a casualty. I want him to have a name and a face, because he worked very hard for the Canadian people for the last three decades.”
He was doing a training exercise on the Polar Circus at the time of the avalanche.
An initial report from the Canadian military is expected in about a month’s time.
With files from Tracy Nagai, Jill Croteau and The Canadian Press
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