RCMP investigators continue to probe the scene of a weekend avalanche in Revelstoke, B.C., which left two Alberta men dead and authorities scrambling to confirm that all survivors had been accounted for.
The avalanche happened Saturday afternoon at Boulder Mountain, where a group of 200 people were watching the annual Big Iron Shoot-Out -- an informal skills competition that draws snowmobile enthusiasts every year.
Two Albertans died in the avalanche -- Kurtis Reynolds, 33, of Strathmore, Alta., and Shay Snortland, 33 of Lacombe, Alta.
Another 31 people ended up in hospital, including one who was in critical condition.
Reynolds's widow, Shannon, issued a statement Monday in which she said she lost "the love of my life" who was "the most amazing husband and father."
Shannon Reynolds also said her husband was "not an avid sledder" who was on a rare weekend away with his friends.
"This was only his second time out, the first being last year watching the same event," she said. "Kurtis was just a spectator who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Snortland's wife, Janine, told Vancouver radio station CKNW organizers should have cancelled the event due to avalanche warnings for the area.
"When there are warnings, they shouldn't even have allowed that event to happen," Janine Snortland told the station. "I knew they had sold tickets, called Trail Passes, so they're making a profit from this. It's not just people going up this hill; it's an organized event by someone."
The RCMP spent the weekend conducting thorough checks of local motels and houses, making sure that no one else had gone missing in Revelstoke, about 200 kilometres northeast of Kelowna.
As of Monday morning, RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said authorities have accounted for all people known to be in the area at the time of the avalanche. And they have received no reports "of missing persons connected to the event."
But he said police continue to comb through the site and will keep searching for an additional day.
"We want to be sure as possible and as confident as possible before they shut the search down," Moskaluk told CTV News Channel by telephone from Revelstoke.
Moskaluk said "all surface debris" was removed from the avalanche site yesterday, which will make it easier for search-and-rescue crews to do their job.
Spectators caught by surprise
The RCMP believes Saturday's avalanche was likely triggered when snowmobilers were high-marking -- taking their machines to the highest point of the mountain they could reach, before turning back to safer ground. The incident remains under investigation.
When the snow began to tumble down the mountain, dozens of spectators were watching the snowmobilers from a place where they thought they were safe. In reality, they were too close to the action and became trapped in the ensuing disaster.
Survivor Ben Bassaraba, of Fernie, B.C., said he was tossed 200 metres by the snow.
Bassaraba told Kamloops radio station CHNL that he was eating lunch when the wave of snow came crashing down on him and the others around him.
"Everybody I could see went under. It was so massive, there was nowhere you could go, anyways," Bassaraba told the radio station as he recovered in hospital on Sunday.
"I should have been way down deep, I don't know how I ended up on top. I was lucky, but there's people less lucky, that's for sure."
Moskaluk said the people trapped under the snow were fortunate that some nearby snowmobilers had the equipment on-hand to save their lives.
"Once we got up there, there were people that had already been extricated from the snow and unburied and had been able to get out of there," Moskaluk said.
Safety questions
The incident has prompted some people to suggest it may be time to crack down on snowmobilers engaging in activities that are unnecessarily reckless.
But snowmobilers remain against any regulations in the back-country.
B.C. Snowmobile Federation executive director Les Auston said any rules restricting access to the province's vast back-country would be impossible to enforce.
Auston said it's a personal choice to participate in high-risk snowmobiling activities. However, he also said there should be more education to help inform decisions.
The Canadian Avalanche Centre routinely issues regional warnings to alert snowmobilers of local conditions.
With files from The Canadian Press
