There are renewed pleas for outdoor enthusiasts to stay out of the B.C. backcountry after an avalanche hit an out of bounds area in Whistler on Sunday.
Officials are speaking out after a father and his four-year-old son got caught in a small slide and were partially buried after going out of bounds in an area known as the Corona Bowl on Blackcomb Mountain.
Fortunately, the pair was able to dig themselves out and were not injured in the incident.
“They were caught in the debris that was sliding down the hill,” Whistler Blackcomb safety manager Kira Cailes told Global News.
“Our search teams were triggered to respond if there needed to be a more detailed search to ensue but fortunately we did not have to continue any further. They then just ensured that those two people were not injured.”
Cailes said the avalanche was considered a 1.5, which is “fairly small” and added it was fortunate everybody was able to leave the site in one piece.
According to the Whistler Blackcomb officials, the restricted area is clearly marked and the avalanche was triggered above the father and son by a group of skiers returning from a backcountry excursion.
Last month Corey Lynam, a young Vancouver father and avid outdoor enthusiast, lost his life in an avalanche in the Callaghan Valley.
Lynam was skiing with a group of 14 in the Hanging Lake area of Mount Sproatt on March 4 when an avalanche struck.
Search and Rescue crews, as well as two dogs from the Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dogs Association, searched for the missing skier.
One of the dogs eventually alerted crews to a location, where they found the 33-year-old man buried under 80 centimetres of snow.
— With files from Jill Slattery