After five people were killed in avalanches in B.C. in a single week, snowmobilers were headed right back into the back country this weekend.
"It's a passion for riding, I guess. I love doing it," one snowmobile rider, out with a friend, told CTV News near the site of a deadly slide that killed one near Revelstoke.
"I know both of us know the risks that we're taking going out here."
Local snowmobilers were similarly unfazed after two people were killed and 31 injured in Revelstoke a week earlier.
Snowmobilers accept the risks, but what they don't accept is the idea of law enforcement telling them where they can and can't go.
"Police presence is everywhere. Can't we go somewhere without them? In the high country? Riding snowmobiles?" one rider asked.
The B.C. government says any legislation wouldn't be in place until near the end of next year.
But the opposition NDP says the time to regulate is now.
"I think the announcement that it'll be the winter, November 2011 is too late," NDP public safety critic Mike Farnworth said.
"I think we could be doing a lot more, much sooner."
The general consensus in the snowmobiling community is that they don't want any part of further regulation, and there is a fear it will simply drive business away from the region.
"They'd be devastated, of course. It's going to slow a lot of tourists, money coming into the small towns," said Ted Kostiuk, a snowmobile racer with Terra Alps racing in Kelowna.
But the death of two helicopter skiers at Wells Gray provincial park over the weekend has further heightened concern, and it might not be the last example of how the back country can be dangerous this season.
The Canadian Avalanche Centre says the avalanche risk is expected to remain high for the remainder of the month, as another deadly year in B.C.'s back country draws to a close.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat
