Only luck and a quick response kept an avalanche in the British Columbia backcountry last weekend from becoming the worst in Canadian history, says a report from the Canadian Avalanche Centre.
The preliminary report said that without both those factors, the death toll in the Boulder Mountain avalanche near Revelstoke, B.C., last Saturday would have been much worse.
As it was, two Alberta men died and 31 people were hurt when the snow rolled over a group of snowmobilers gathered on the mountain for the Big Iron Shoot-Out snowmobiling event.
About 200 people were in a flat area at the bottom of the mountain when a few snowmobilers on high-powered machines began to race up the face of it, "high-marking," where riders compete to get their machines the furthest up.
The Shoot-Out is an annual event that has attracted up to 3,000 people in the past.
Mary Clayton, of the Canadian Avalanche Centre based in Revelstoke, said she has often heard the roar of the crowds and snowmobiles all the way in town from the same event in previous years.
But there was a much smaller number of people taking part this year, another fortunate factor in what could have been a much greater tragedy, she said.
"The fact that there were only 200 or so, that tells us something, tells us the warnings about the dangers are being heard," she said Friday.
Clayton said it was also fortunate for would-be victims that the avalanche took place near Revelstoke, the epicentre of the mountain guiding community, a well-trained group that immediately jumped into action to help those caught in the slide.
Four helicopter operations responded to the call for help within minutes, and search and rescue teams, police and mountain guides all raced to the scene.
"The only reason this accident had not gone down in the history books as Canada's worst avalanche accident is luck, coupled with the quick initial response," the report stated. "Without either, the outcome of this incident would have been much worse."
The report said it's safe to assume the avalanche was caused by snowmobilers, noting witness accounts that a few members of the group were high-marking at the time.
Last winter, 75 per cent of the 26 people killed in avalanches in western Canada - most of them in B.C. - were snowmobilers.
The number of snowmobiler deaths in the last five years has "skyrocketed" because there's a new, inexperienced user group in the alpine, Clayton said.
"Ten years ago you had to be a very skilled rider to get up in the high alpine. Now that's not the case. You can buy a good mountain sled off the floor and you can be up in high, challenging alpine terrain tomorrow."
That kind of horsepower - which is where the term "big iron" comes from - allows riders into areas previously inaccessible to all but the most experienced.
The report said the avalanche was about 140 metres wide, between two and five metres deep, and a size three on their four-tiered scale.
Clayton said digging out survivors from the hard packed snow would have been like shovelling cement, yes dozens were dug out.
First responders on the scene said many who were on the mountain that day did excellent work in locating victims, she said, having come well-prepared, wearing locator devices and carrying shovels and long poles to conduct a search.
"Our message is about preparation, carrying the property safety equipment, that's getting through. But there's work to do, obviously, with the snowmobiling community," Clayton said.
A BC Coroner's Service death review panel conducted after eight sledders died in an avalanche in December 2008 made 15 recommendations.
Among the suggestions were increased coverage and frequency of avalanche forecasts, a call for an avalanche terrain classification system, and continued development of an avalanche signage policy.
Earlier this week, the federal government announced a new North America-wide avalanche warning system that will outline the danger on a scale of up to five to help users make choices.
The system will be in place next winter.
