REVELSTOKE, B.C. - All people in an area where an avalanche cascaded down a mountain in B.C.'s interior, killing one snowmobiler Friday night, have been accounted for, police said Saturday.
Police said there were two groups of snowmobilers in the area on Eagle Pass Mountain at the time of slide.
Two snowmobilers going up the hill triggered the avalanche, police believe. A separate group at the base was in a location far from the slide, but one person in that group was buried and killed.
Police say a 30-year-old man from Calgary died in the slide. Another man, from Saskatchewan received minor injuries.
``We're able to confirm those 14 were the only ones in the immediate area of the slide,'' said Cpl Dan Moskaluk, referring to groups on the mountain. Initially, police believed there were up to 60 people in the area.
Moskaluk says based on witness accounts and Friday's search efforts, police found no further signs that anyone else was buried.
``They've accounted for everybody who was at the trail heads and the roads and access points going in, so there's every reason to believe _ as search and rescue people and RCMP do _ that there's no one left in there,'' Revelstoke Mayor David Raven had said earlier Saturday.
The slide was classified as a Size 4 avalanche, the second-largest category. Such slides are capable of destroying a railway car, large truck, several buildings, or a forest area up to five football fields in size.
``It would be the size of a three-storey building coming down the valley,'' said Raven.
A slide last weekend proved no less deadly when it swept over an extreme-snowmobile competition, killing two and injuring 31 others.
Police say both slides were the result of so-called extreme snowmobilers engaged in the practice of ``high-marking,'' where participants race up steep, snowy slopes to see who can get the highest before being forced to turn around.
``Once again it does showcase the risk associated to this activity, to back country snowmobiling,'' said Moskaluk.
``Particularly when people try to get to the top of the hill and down again on these inclines that are known to hold a high degree of risk for avalanche slides to occur,'' he said.