A Fernie Alpine Ski Team (FAST) coach has described how he watched as an avalanche on Saturday at Fernie Alpine Resort (FAR) carried four people 50 meters and partially buried them.
Mark Deneau said he is glad there were not more serious injuries in the avalanche, which was triggered by a member of the ski team when he jumped off a small ledge.
Deneau said he watched as the slide carried three kids and coach Ben Cohen down the hill and through the trees.
?¢‚Ǩ?ìNone of us were wearing transceivers,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù he said. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìYou just don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t expect you will need them when you are skiing inbounds.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù
He said Cohen, who is the son of Andy Cohen, the General Manager at Fernie Alpine Resort, hit a tree and suffered a concussion as well as hurting his knee.
Deneau and Cohen were coaching a group of seven kids aged between 15 and 17 at the time and were going off a small jump at the top of the 1-2-3s in Currie Bowl.
?¢‚Ǩ?ìMe and two girls were waiting at the bottom of the run on a bench,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù he said. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìBen and three boys were about half way down. Further up, there were the last two boys. One hit the jump and must have landed right on the sweet spot because the slab just broke off.
?¢‚Ǩ?ìThe kid who triggered it ended up buried to his knees and dug himself out but Ben and the three kids he was with were carried through the trees and ended up below.
?¢‚Ǩ?ìThey all hit trees. Luckily they were wearing helmets, although one kid said he was dizzy from hitting his head despite the helmet.
?¢‚Ǩ?ìWe managed to get to all of them and dug them out before ski patrol arrived. There is still a pair of skis buried under the debris.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù
John Shea, Chief Resorts Officer for Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, said they are taking the incident very seriously. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìWe are looking at this as a very serious situation for sure,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù he said. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìAny incident that involves the safety of our guests is very important to us and will be treated seriously.
?¢‚Ǩ?ìWe have a team of avalanche control experts there and a high level of confidence in them. They work very hard to make sure the public are safe, but despite all the work this still happened.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù
He denied that the resort had been playing down the severity of the avalanche when a press release sent out on Saturday stated, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìNone of the seven were buried.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù
?¢‚Ǩ?ìWhen our staff members arrived at the scene, there wasn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t anyone buried. Later on more information emerged that the skiers had been partially buried and had to be pulled out of the debris.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù
The slide happened just before 2 p.m. on Saturday.
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