{"id":69772,"date":"2016-01-31T19:17:07","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T00:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=69772"},"modified":"2016-01-31T19:17:07","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T00:17:07","slug":"bigger-than-thou-awestruck-snowmobilers-wont-stop-after-5-avalanche-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/01\/31\/bigger-than-thou-awestruck-snowmobilers-wont-stop-after-5-avalanche-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Bigger than thou’: Awestruck snowmobilers won’t stop after 5 avalanche deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Untitled<\/a><\/p>\n

MCBRIDE, B.C.\u2014The day after a colossal avalanche killed five snowmobilers in eastern British Columbia, Thea Pelletier climbed aboard her machine and returned to the backcountry wilderness.<\/p>\n

She unfastened a yellow plastic lily from her backpack and planted the flower in pristine snow to pay her respects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a moment. It was intense. It was bigger than thou,\u201d Pelletier said. \u201cYou feel the insignificance of what you are when you’re up against mountains like this. I can’t imagine someone calling my mom to say, ‘Your daughter is not coming home.\u201d’<\/p>\n

The B.C. Coroners Service revealed over the weekend the identities of the five Alberta men who died during a recreational outing on Mount Renshaw, near the small community of McBride, B.C.<\/p>\n

They were identified as Vincent Loewen, 52, of Vegreville; Tony Greenwood, 41, of Grand Prairie County; Ricky Robinson, 55, of Spruce Grove; Todd Chisholm, 47, of St. Albert; and John Garley, 49, of Stony Plain.<\/p>\n

The Coroner’s office issued a news release that it concluded its investigation of the avalanche area as it works to determine the cause of the slide.<\/p>\n

RCMP said the snowmobilers were in four separate groups that had converged just before the slide came roaring down.<\/p>\n

As the sun set Saturday evening, four trucks with Alberta licence plates and snowmobile trailers attached were left empty in the darkness at the foot of the Rocky Mountain range.<\/p>\n

Inside one was a pack of cigarettes and ring of faux Hawaiian flowers, hanging from the rear-view mirror. There were Tim Hortons coffee cups in another, and an Edmonton Oilers cap sat on the dash of the vehicle next to it.<\/p>\n

By early Sunday, groups of snowmobilers prepared to leave McBride\u2014some calling it a stressful weekend, while others believed more painful emotions would set in later.<\/p>\n

Two men said they were heading back to the scene to retrieve the sled of their friend, who had died.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a very nice guy, a family man,\u201d said Leo, who didn’t give his last name, of his friend John Garley.<\/p>\n

He said preventing future deaths required \u201ceducation,\u201d but he described the scene on Friday as \u201cjust a bad situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil Petryshen, from Saskatoon, said he and his friends hadn’t absorbed the loss yet, but suggested the tragedy wouldn’t stop them from going out again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy doesn’t it stop us? There’s different types of brain mentality for sledders,\u201d he said, noting they weren’t into going up extreme peaks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the risk-takers, they want to go there. As you advance, you want to push the limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelletier, 31, and her husband were among exhilarated teams of sledders who returned to the parking lot near the mountain’s base after ripping around in the mountains.<\/p>\n

She said she’d first heard of the deaths when a news alert flashed on her smartphone.<\/p>\n

Her first reaction was \u201ctotal shock,\u201d she said. When she and her husband returned to McBride, they went to dinner at a restaurant that was packed with a sombre crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty heavy in there,\u201d she said, after listening to rescuers describe pulling bodies and 12 survivors from the snow. \u201cThey were just debriefing over a beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the couple still chose to head out the next morning on the mountain where the tragedy occurred.<\/p>\n

Pelletier admitted feeling trepidation, but was confident they took proper precautions. She checked the avalanche danger rating, hung an SOS beacon from her neck, and carried a probe and shovel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I’m a risk-taker. But you have to take calculated risks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Though she and her husband steered well clear of the avalanche site, from one vista they could still see vast cracks where snow bowls had been disturbed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’ve got to go through a lot of sketchy areas to where those guys ended up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pelletier was nowhere near the victims the day they died, but said she had often witnessed \u201cshowboating and a lot of testosterone\u201d displayed in the male-dominated sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go in big groups, I think there’s a mentality of one-upping each other,\u201d she said. \u201cWe saw (the avalanche area) and said, ‘Why would you ever go up there?\u201d’<\/p>\n

Rock Major, from Saskatoon, said he wasn’t influenced by the fatalities because \u201cI’m smarter than those guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don’t go out climbing the mountain at once. Some people go there and they don’t belong there,\u201d he said. \u201cYou ride like your weakest rider, is No. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

His friend Shawn Rudolph said he wasn’t thinking about the deaths, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou keep it in the back of your mind, but you don’t really think about it because it’ll just affect the way you treat the hill, and get into a spot where you’re gun-shy and nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Search and rescue manager Rod Whelpton, who helped in the response, noted the deep snow made for an unpredictable situation. However Friday’s deaths would not necessarily be a future deterrent, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe some people will be changed and other people will continue on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A warning sign posted at the parking lot declared the hazard level was \u201cconsiderable,\u201d falling mid-way on the risk scale.<\/p>\n

On the outskirts of town, a bed-and-breakfast owner said the community was not surprised by occasional fatalities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sort of stuff comes with the territory. It happens,\u201d said the owner, who declined to be named.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s like, you go out on the highway right now and you get hit by a semi-truck. It’s very sad, but it’s just reality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MCBRIDE, B.C.\u2014The day after a colossal avalanche killed five snowmobilers in eastern British Columbia, Thea Pelletier climbed aboard her machine …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":65579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9094,16],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-69772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-human-interest","category-news","tag-original","mauthors-tamsyn-burgmann","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}