Local snowmobilers Bob and Liam Dhillon had a close brush with an avalanche on Saturday, Jan. 29.
According to Bob Dhillon, his son Liam was working his way across the slope to the west of the Snodrifters’ cabin. The area was formerly used for the club’s hill climb event but they were not hill-climbing, he said.
After crossing the slope Liam stopped and parked, looked behind, and realized the slope had slid behind him.
Bob Dhillon came along later, saw the slide, and feared his son had been buried. He was much relieved to find him unharmed beyond the bottom of the run out zone.
“It went right to the ground at the top,” said the elder Dhillon. “You could see rocks showing through.”
Dhillon also got a chance to speak with the five members of a party that was involved in a massive slide in the Sugar Bowl, which is located on the eastern side of the mountain.
That avalanche was five to 10 times the size of the one on the western slopes they were involved with, he estimated.
One of the party was videotaping the others high-marking on the slope above him when the whole hillside cracked above the group.
“He realized it was time to leave,” said Dhillon. Apparently the snowmobiler had some spectacular images taped but left his camera behind in his haste to depart.
Dhillon believed one or more members of the party were caught in the slide but they were able to self-rescue without incident. It appeared no one was injured. The five weren’t local but possibly were from Kamloops.
“It was the most avalanche activity I’ve seen on Raft,” said Dhillon. “This is a good heads up, a reminder on the hazards of regularly used local sledder terrain.”
For more comments on the local avalanche situation, see the North Thompson Backcountry Report on page A15 inside.