‘It’s just unbelievable’ says widow of Lacombe avalanche victim
A newly-widowed mother who lives northeast of Lacombe is asking some hard questions after her husband and his business partner died in an avalanche on Saturday afternoon.
Janine Snortland, 34, learned at about 6 p.m. that evening that her husband, Shay, 33 and his partner, Kurtis Reynolds of Strathmore, also 33, went missing after a wall of snow bulldozed through a crowd of snowmobilers on Boulder Mountain, near Revelstoke.
“Saturday I heard from a lady, her husband was up with my husband. I had official confirmation at about 2 a.m. that he had passed, from the RCMP,” said Snortland, who had stayed at home.
The two men were in a group of about 200 people who had been sitting on their machines, watching while other riders competed in the Big Iron Shootout, an annual high marking competition held on the mountain.
High marking is similar to motorcycle hill climbing competitions, in which riders power their machines to full throttle and then attempt to climb a steep slope, known to sledders as a pull.
Revelstoke RCMP have determined that both men were killed and another 31 people were injured under the avalanche of snow that crashed into the site at about 3:30 p.m.
“It’s just unbelievable,” said Snortland, who is left with two little girls, Miya and Ilea, aged six and four.
Reynolds leaves his wife, Shannon and two sons, aged five and nine.
The two men had been working together when Shay formed Strathmore-based oilfield service company, K&S Trucking, just under three years ago, said Snortland.
“Shay started his own business and Kurtis came over and helped make things happen,” she said.
Snowmobilers accept that there are risks when they go out on their own, said Snortland. However, she wants to know how such a large event could be carried off without having a person or group of people taking firmer control to ensure that people stayed safe.
Riders competing in the Big Iron Shootout would have been aware that the risk of an avalanche was unusually high, said avid sledder Jason Martin, a parts consultant at Red Deer Power Sports.
There has been even more risk than normal this year because an unusual amount of hoar frost had made the slopes unstable, Martin said on Monday.
“Snow conditions have been horrible since the beginning of December.”
Although not personally aware of where the avalanche victims had been stopped, he said most riders know that the bottom of a pull is a dangerous place from which to watch other riders high marking.
Boulder Mountain has a collection of pulls that make it extremely popular for high marking, said Martin. The most challenging is Turbo, which he estimated at about 600 metres high.
“The last 100 to 200 feet are straight up.”
Big Iron Shootout has become so popular with high markers in recent years that its organizers have had to limit the number of people who can bring their machines, he said.
The event had drawn from 500 to 700 people in previous years. But numbers were limited to about 300 this year because there were so many riders, the organizers couldn’t keep it under control, said Martin, who took part last year and the year before.
People who participate in high marking know it’s dangerous, but feel it’s worth the risk, he said.
“It’s all the top names and big sledders, they all get together and she’s king of the hill, who gets the bragging rights for the next year.”
RCMP officers continue to investigate the avalanche, which they believe was caused by sledding activity on the mountain.
bkossowan@reddeeradvocate.com
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