A 19-year-old snowboarder missing overnight after going out of bounds at Mount Washington Alpine Resort and getting caught in an avalanche was taken to hospital Thursday with frostbite and hypothermia.
The man, who lives in the village at Mount Washington, had been riding at the resort with at least one other person on Wednesday, but they split up around 2:30 p.m., said Paul Berry, search manager for Comox Valley Ground Search and Rescue.
He was found in the backcountry Thursday with hypothermia and “considerable” frostbite on his hands and feet after losing his gloves, helmet and snowboard in an avalanche the previous day, Berry said.
The avalanche was large enough that it likely rolled him around and “probably did cover him at some point and he popped out,” said Berry, who estimated the avalanche measured between 1.5 and 2.0 on the five-point scale. A size 2.0 avalanche can bury, injure or kill someone and typically leaves a path of about 100 metres.
The avalanche risk for alpine and treeline areas on Vancouver Island was rated high from Wednesday to Friday, and the Vancouver Island Avalanche Centre advised avoiding all avalanche terrain.
The snowboarder was not carrying avalanche gear for travelling in the backcountry, which includes a transceiver, a probe and a shovel, and he did not have a cellphone to call for help, Berry said.
“This is another example of someone venturing into the backcountry into avalanche terrain, unprepared to be there, without any of the type of safety equipment that we would expect,” he said.
Because the resort is open for night skiing, the snowboarder wasn’t reported missing until late in the evening, when he failed to return home.
Mount Washington staff knocked on doors and conducted a search of the village. Search and rescue was notified about 10:20 Wednesday night, Berry said.
Ski patrollers attempted to locate tracks leaving the resort, but fresh snow obscured any clues. Search-and-rescue crews couldn’t attempt a rescue at night because the avalanche risk was too high, and heavy snowfall and high winds prevented assessment of the snowpack, Berry said.
About 20 searchers went out on skis and snowmobiles and in a helicopter Thursday morning. From the helicopter, someone spotted the missing snowboarder on the eastern side of Mount Washington in a backcountry area known as Buck’s Run, Berry said. Crews on skis were dropped in above him and skied down. They took him to a place safe for the helicopter to land and he was transported to a waiting ambulance.
Berry said the rescue is a reminder that everyone wanting to explore the backcountry this winter needs to have proper avalanche training and safety gear and be prepared to rescue themselves.
“They need to look after themselves in the event that they do get in position as this fellow did. When you’re in the backcountry, it’s not like calling 911 and having someone arrive within a few minutes,” Berry said. “It’s going to take time. And because of the conditions, it may be that they cannot come at all.”
