Historical Incidents

Incident Summary

Date

2016-05-23

Location

Mt Lawson

Location Description

Province

AB

Coordinates

50.77610 °, 115.18460 °

Elevation

2500 m

Activity

Mountaineering

Involvement

1

Injury

Fatality

1

Description

A solo scrambler triggered a loose wet avalanche while plunge-stepping on descent of Mt Lawson at an unknown time on May 23, 2016. The subject was reported as overdue on the morning of May 24. Rescue crews flew to the scene and observed the subject's tracks entering a size 2.0 avalanche in close proximity to the normal route on the NE face of Mt Lawson. From the air search no clues were visible. An aerial RECCO search was performed with no significant hits. Rescuers assessed the scene further and decided to deploy explosives in the start zones above the incident site before exposing rescuers on the ground. Ten bags of explosives were placed in the overhead start zones resulting in several size 2.0 loose wet avalanches, some of which over ran existing avalanche debris in the gully. Public Safety Specialists and Conservation Officers from Kananaskis Country, along with the Banff National Park Dog Handler and avalanche search dog were flown to a safe zone on a buttress adjacent to the avalanche path. As rescue crews began the search, the deceased subject's right knee was just barely visible above the snow surface. The subject had initiated the slide at approximately 2500m ASL and was carried just under 500m vertical before he was critically buried in a gully feature. Burial depth was an average of 50cm. Subject was buried head down and on his back with his ice axe still attached to his wrist by a leash. Extensive trauma was evident to head and legs. It is unknown if subject was wearing a helmet at the time of the avalanche, but one was not found with him.