Avalanche that killed three in B.C. is being investigated as ‘workplace incident’

Three visitors from Switzerland died while heli-skiing in northern B.C. last weekend, and their guide was critically injured.

British Columbia’s Workers’ Compensation Board has launched an investigation into a fatal avalanche this weekend just north of Terrace that killed three heli-skiers.

The investigation by the board, also known as WorkSafeBC, comes as experts urge B.C. backcountry users to be vigilant against avalanche risks, after a deadly weekend that also claimed the life of a fourth skier in a separate slide near Atlin in the remote northwest.

Avalanche Canada public forecaster Zoe Ryan says March is statistically “the most dangerous month” for slides, as the snowpack transitions to spring and temperatures warm up.

Ryan says “quite a large natural avalanche cycle” has been brought on by last week’s atmospheric river event, which dumped heavy precipitation across the province.

Avalanche Canada had warned last week that the atmospheric river, bringing heavy precipitation, warmth and winds, could destabilize terrain.

The organization says the three heli-skiers killed on Mount Knauss on Sunday were part of a group that triggered a slide which left the fourth skier in their party critically injured.

WorkSafeBC says it has been notified of the Mount Knauss avalanche as a “serious workplace incident,” and investigators will be looking into the cause of the deaths and whether anything can be done to prevent similar cases in the future.

Another skier died Sunday about 500 kilometres from Atlin after a group of five set off a slide that left the victim buried under 1.5 metres of snow.

Ryan says the situation is still risky especially in the northern regions of B.C. where Sunday’s fatal avalanches took place.

She says the area’s snowpack is still in mid-winter condition with weak layers buried deep in snow that can both be larger in scale and harder for people traversing the terrain to detect.

“When we’re dealing with these deeper instabilities, these deeply buried weak layers, that’s when we get into really big avalanches with a large size potential,” she says.

She is encouraging people in the backcountry to choose conservative, less-risky terrain.

WorkSafeBC also issued a bulletin urging employers to ensure their employees’ safety when working in avalanche terrain, noting that they are responsible to make sure their workers are not exposed to hazards under the board’s occupational health and safety regulation.

The agency says the board has accepted 23 avalanche-related injury claims between 2014 and 2024, including one case involving a fatality and 11 serious injuries.

“It’s absolutely fundamental to making sure that our workers, our most valuable assets are protected while at their work and that they go home to their families and their loved ones in as good or better shape as they got to work,” says Andrew Kidd, director of prevention field services at WorkSafeBC, about an employer’s responsibility for assessing avalanche risks.

He says while people may not associate outdoor environments as work safety sites, an employer needs to get an assessment of avalanche risks from a qualified person and formulate a plan if the working environment includes risky terrain.

Employers must also “ensure conditions are continuously monitored, workers are properly trained, supervised, and informed, and that work is postponed or stopped when conditions are unsafe.”

Ryan says avalanche risks also remain in southern B.C. despite the weak layers of snow being more exposed at surface level.

She says people traversing the backcountry anywhere in the province need to have proper safety training and monitor bulletins before going into mountainous terrain.

“The northwest ranges through to the Yukon, it’s really still winter up there,” she says. “It might feel like spring because the days are so long and temperatures are starting to warm up.

“You might be seeing the sun, but we truly still have a mid-winter snowpack,” Ryan adds. “And we need to to wait and be patient before we step into bigger terrain as they might be accustomed to in the spring.”

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This report by Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press, was first published March 24, 2026.