BRITISH COLUMBIA: Four people died in two separate avalanches in northern British Columbia on Sunday, including three heli skiers caught on Mount Knauss north of Terrace and one skier killed hours later near Pleasant Camp close to the Alaska border. Police said the incidents were unrelated but occurred the same afternoon in remote backcountry terrain, prompting helicopter operations in both responses and separate investigations by the BC Coroners Service as authorities worked to establish the circumstances surrounding each death.
Terrace RCMP said the first avalanche was reported shortly before 1:30 p.m. after four heli skiers were swept up on the Iridium Shoulder ski run on Mount Knauss. Police, search and rescue crews and paramedics were mobilized after staff at a nearby lodge reported the slide. Responders located all four skiers, but three were pronounced dead at the scene. The fourth was airlifted from the mountain with serious injuries and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, police said.
At 3:26 p.m., Atlin RCMP received a Garmin SOS alert from a remote area near the Klehini River and Pleasant Camp, a sparsely populated zone near the border with Alaska. Police said the information available at the time indicated an avalanche had occurred and that one person was unconscious while CPR was underway. Officers coordinated with Atlin Search and Rescue and arranged helicopter access because of the terrain. Five people were extracted from the site, with one person confirmed dead and four others uninjured.
Investigations Open After Two Deadly Slides
Authorities have not released the identities of any of the victims. In both cases, police said the BC Coroners Service was notified and investigations were opened. The Mount Knauss incident involved mechanized skiing, while the second fatality was logged by Avalanche Canada as a backcountry skiing death in the Haines Pass area. The agency’s fatal incident records for March 22 list three deaths at Knauss Mountain and one death at Haines Pass, matching the overall toll reported by police.
The avalanches came as forecasters continued to warn of unstable snow conditions across northwestern British Columbia. Avalanche Canada said reactive wind slabs combined with buried weak layers remained a hazard in alpine terrain near Terrace and in the Haines and White Pass region. The forecaster urged conservative terrain choices and pointed to recent skier triggered avalanches near Terrace as evidence that the snowpack could still produce human triggered slides on steep slopes at higher elevations.
Hazard Ratings Stay Elevated Across The Region
Public avalanche forecasts issued after the incidents continued to rate danger as considerable in alpine terrain near Terrace, while the Haines and White Pass area also carried considerable danger in alpine and treeline bands. Forecast details cited recent snowfall, wind loading and persistent weak layers as key concerns. Those conditions framed the two fatal incidents as part of a period of heightened backcountry risk across northern sections of the province, where access is difficult and rescue operations often depend on aircraft and specialized teams.
The two avalanches occurred about two hours apart in separate parts of northwestern British Columbia, one involving heli skiing near Terrace and the other involving a touring group near the Alaska boundary. One survivor from the Mount Knauss avalanche remained hospitalized with serious injuries, while the four people extracted from the Pleasant Camp area were not reported hurt. Police have not announced further details on how the slides unfolded, and the names of the dead had not been released as of Tuesday, with both cases still under investigation – By Content Syndication Services.