Mounties and the coroner are investigating after a young woman was killed while snowboarding during a cat-skiing expedition in southeastern B.C.
The 32-year-old woman, a resident of the Kootenays region, was on a backcountry trip in a group of 12 skiers in the Retallack Lodge area. Her identity has not been released, but police say she was an experienced snowboarder.
Kaslo RCMP say the group was descending a run when they noticed that the victim was missing. The guide located her using an avalanche transceiver, and found her buried head-first in the snow.
The woman was brought down from the mountain by guides from the lodge. They performed CPR on her all the way to the hospital in Kaslo, but attempts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful.
The incident happened Wednesday afternoon around 3 p.m. on a remote slope in the Selkirk Mountains, east of New Denver. The victim was pronounced dead three hours after she was located.
Investigators say preliminary information suggests she tripped in fresh snow, and fell backwards down a hill.
Cat-skiing, a concept popularized in B.C. roughly 30 years ago, involves bringing teams of skiers into the high alpine by ski hill grooming machines – normally called snowcats.
There are 15 cat-skiing destinations in B.C., with others in the US, Chile and New Zealand.
