Who: A male snowboarder. That’s all we know.
Where: Central Kootenays, British Columbia
His mistake: Ignored severe avalanche warnings.
What happened: A snowboarder and two friends were hitting a steep north-facing slope when a slab broke. Two snowboarders were not caught in the slide, but one rider wasn’t so lucky. In the slide, the man’s snowboard snapped in half and he was smashed into a tree.
Thirty minutes before sundown, his friends called for help. A team from Snowwater Heli-Skiing responded and helped the injured snowboarder. First responders assessed him with a possible broken leg, broken pelvis and internal injuries.
Shortly after the heli-team arrived, members of mountain rescue and other volunteers showed up to the scene. One man heard the call for help and brought his snowmobile and gurney. The teams loaded the injured snowboarder on the sled and hauled him out. There was no safe place to land a chopper for an aerial haul out.
It took the rescuers approximately 4 hours to get the injured snowboarder out of the backcountry and into an ambulance.
Read the story here.
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