*** Four Teens Die in Canadian Rockies Avalanche ***

27th November 1997

CANMORE, Alta. (CP) -- Four teens were killed Saturday in an avalanche in
Alberta's Rocky Moutains after they hiked into the back country in search
of snow. 

The teens -- three males and one female -- were all 17 and from Calgary.
Searchers retrieved the bodies from near the Fortress ski hill west of
Calgary on Sunday after a parent reported the youths missing when they did
not return home Saturday. 

Their bodies were found close together under a metre of snow and
investigators believe they were walking through a gully when the avalanche
hit. "Nobody was skiing at that point and they were all together
.. because they were together they were probably joking and laughing,"
and probably didn't hear the sound of the avalanche, said Kananaskis
Country ranger George Field. 

Unseasonably mild temperatures and lack of snowfall have kept most
Alberta ski hills closed this season. 

A search was launched Saturday, but called off at nightfall. At first
light Sunday, park rangers discovered tracks leading into a fresh slab
avalanche in the out of bounds bowl to the right of the double chair on
the backside of Fortress Mountain' main ridge. A national park warden
scouring the site with a rescue dog found the bodies after a brief search. 

Parents of the dead teens gathered at the Fortress ski hill lodge while
the bodies were taken to a waiting ambulance at the bottom of the hill. 

Tracks indicate the teens had hiked up the front of the closed ski hill
and over a ridge in search of some snow where they could ski and
snowboard. Searchers believe the four were still hiking because they
found a backpack with a snowboard still inside. 

"Everybody feels that going into these gullies that have snow in them
.. is the place to go because that's where it's deep," said Field. But
warm Chinook winds that have blown across Alberta for the past week have
built up unstable layers of crust on top of the snow. 

"There has been some crust layers set up because of Chinook-type
temperatures and then they're frozen again. These are the layers that
caused the problem here," said Field. 

The warmer temperatures also contributed to several recent accidents
involving ice climbers in the Alberta Rockies. 

Ice conditions were suspected in the fall of a British man who was
climbing Mount Kidd Falls near Nakiska in Kananaskis Country on Nov 23.
The man was flown by rescue helicopter to a Calgary hospital with
undetermined injuries. The climber apparently lost his grip or the ice
gave way. 

Later the same day, wardens in Banff National Park responded to a call
at Professor Falls on Mount Rundle, about five kilometres from the town,
where a man had fallen about five metres and injured his knee. Two ice
screws appeared to have dislodged.

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