Article content
North Shore Rescue has been called to Whistler to help search for five skiers missing since Sunday afternoon.
According to the NSR Facebook page, at around 8:30 p.m. Whistler Search and Rescue contacted the North Shore-based rescue team asking to use its night hoist team to assist locating and extracting five lost skiers.
Article content
“Whistler requested our night hoist team to respond with Talon Helicopters to assist locating and extracting the (five) skiers,” the Facebook page reported.
Article content
However, bad weather in Vancouver prevented any rescue helicopters from departing, while elevated avalanche danger on Sunday night was “complicating ground responses.”
NSR did not state whether the missing skiers were out of bounds or within bounds.
On Sunday night NSR was also responding to a lost skier on Cypress who called in and reported he was lost. Crews have responded to Cypress.
At 11 p.m. mountain cameras at Whistler Blackcomb showed heavy snow, with a temperature of minus 5 C at village level.
The Whistler area is among several parts of British Columbia that are subject to a special avalanche warning after heavy snow over the past several days. The warning is in effect until March 4.
“Recent storms have deposited a significant amount of snow across Western Canada. This new snow sits on prominent weak layers established during drought conditions in February. In some areas, there is more than one weak layer,” Avalanche Canada reported last Thursday.
“As the active storm period passes, widespread natural avalanche activity will slow. However, human-triggered avalanches remain likely.”
Share this article in your social network
