FERNIE, British Columbia (AP) — Search teams recovered the bodies of seven snowmobilers Monday, a day after they were swept away by avalanches in western Canada’s backcountry, police said. An eighth man was missing and believed dead.
The bodies were found late Monday afternoon as searchers plowed through avalanche debris near Fernie in British Columbia’s Elk Valley, about 550 miles east of Vancouver, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Chris Faulkner.
Eleven snowmobilers were hit by back-to-back avalanches on Sunday. Eight were buried but three from the group clawed through the snow and reached safety.
Three Japanese climbers have been killed in an avalanche while scaling a mountain in Tibet, a mountaineering official said Friday.
The men were trying on Wednesday to climb Mount Kulagangri, one of the peaks greatly revered in Tibet, when the avalanche hit at 6:50 p.m. (1050 GMT), said Dou Changshen, an official of the Tibet Mountaineering Association.
Other team members waiting at a camp 19,300 feet (5,900 meters) above sea level heard the avalanche and went to investigate, he said. They found the bodies 980 feet (300 meters) away from the camp.
Dou said his group received a report at 7:57 p.m. (1157 GMT) and organized a search and rescue team, which brought the bodies to base camp.
CHAMONIX, France (AP) — The bodies of eight climbers swept up in an avalanche near Mont Blanc were located Monday, buried beneath 20 to 50 meters (65-164 feet) of ice, police officials said.
Regis Lavergne, commander of the High Mountain Gendarmes based in Chamonix, said a helicopter picked up the signal of special homing devices the climbers were wearing. It appeared from the signals that the climbers — four Germans, three Swiss and one Austrian — had fallen into a deep crevasse. Read more
