Police have confirmed they were called to the scene of an avalanche in Clearwater County on Saturday afternoon, where four men were reportedly ice climbing.
In a news release issued Saturday evening, the RCMP said they received an emergency SOS signal from a GPS device about 140 kilometres west of Rocky Mountain House and “it was determined the SOS signal was coming from an individual who was ice climbing.”
Police said an officer was in the area and responded to the scene.
“One patient was swept away and buried but he was rescued pretty quick by others in the party,” RCMP Staff Sgt. John Spaars told Global News.
Police said a search and rescue team was called to the area, but the four men who had been climbing managed to walk off the mountain and make it to a roadway.
Earlier in the afternoon, the RCMP said officers were called to an area on Mt. Elliot known as Kitty Hawk. The area is described on various recreational websites as a spot popular with mountain climbers.
STARS Air Ambulance tweeted at 3:26 p.m. that a crew was dispatched to a “scene emergency in the Nordegg area,” however, the tweet did not provide further details.
STARS later confirmed one of its crews airlifted a man to Edmonton to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Much of Alberta was experiencing warm, spring-like temperatures on Saturday. At 4 p.m., Environment Canada reported the temperature in Nordegg had exceeded 8 C.
Spaars was not able to give a cause for the slide, but said he “wouldn’t discount warm weather being a factor.”
According to Avalanche Canada, there have been nearby avalanches reported recently and the avalanche risk appears to be considerable in many areas in the region.
Nordegg is located about 300 kilometres southwest of Edmonton and 300 kilometres northwest of Calgary.
Watch below: Some videos from Global News’ coverage of various avalanches.