3 dead, 4 injured after avalanche hits heli-skiing group in B.C. Interior, police say

Three people are dead and four more seriously injured after an avalanche in the B.C. Interior around noon Wednesday, RCMP say.

A statement Thursday said a total of 10 people were caught in the avalanche while they were heli-skiing in the area of Panorama Mountain Resort near Invermere, B.C., around 160 kilometres southwest of Calgary.

The group was made up of nine skiers and a guide. The clients were all "foreign nationals," police said, but their guide is Canadian. 

The three remaining skiers weren't hurt. None of the skiers' identities have been released.

RCMP said the four injured skiers, one of whom was the guide, were taken to hospital in Invermere. They are expected to survive.

The slide came down in an area outside of the Panorama resort's boundaries. The group was on a tour with RK Heliski, a local company founded decades ago.

News of the fatalities came just after daybreak in Invermere, a small community of 3,900 at the edge of the Rocky Mountains. The district is a popular travel destination in both summer and winter for its easy access to the backcountry, including for many Albertans who own second homes in the area.

"Everybody will be quite distressed by this this morning. It's a very sad thing to wake up and hear," said RCMP Cpl. James Grandy.

"Unfortunately, this season has just been really horrible for avalanches."

Around 44,000 heli-skiers hit B.C.'s remote mountain slopes every year, according to HeliCat Canada. The season runs from mid-December through the end of April, employing roughly 3,000 staff. 

To heli-ski, small groups of skiers are flown by helicopter to the starting point of their ski run on a mountaintop, or transported on a snowcat, a massive vehicle with caterpillar tracks designed to