Two climbers were caught in a moist size 2.5 avalanche on the North Face
route on Mt. Robson on July 29th. The cause of the avalanche appeared to
be from a large cornice release, but visibility obscured the upper North
Face. BC Parks, National Park Wardens, BC Ambulance, RCMP, Yellowhead
Helicopters and Jasper Ambulance responded on the morning of July 30th when
a BC Park Ranger spotted the two climbers. They were motionless and on
avalanche debris at 10,000 feet, below the North Face.
Park Wardens from Jasper accessed the climbers via helicopter in poor light
and visibility. Both climbers were found to be deceased. One climber was
evacuated to the staging area before reduced visibility and increasing
avalanche danger forced us to move down the glacier to where the helicopter
could pick us up.
On July 31st we returned to recover the second climber. Overnight a second
moist avalanche had run and covered the climber. Threat of further
avalanche and many crevasses made it too dangerous to search the area on
foot. An extensive aerial search revealed no sign of the missing climber.
At 12:00 and 14:00 on July 31st, a BC Park Ranger observed large moist
avalanches (size 3 on a scale of 5), again sweeping the accident site,
filling in deep crevasses, and running over 300 metres below onto the Berg
Glacier.
Search efforts have been suspended until conditions improve.
Jordy Shepherd
Jasper Park Warden Service
(See attached file: Looking down Berg Glacier.jpg)(See attached file: Berg
Glacier with North face above in cloud.jpg)
Looking down Berg Glacier.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Berg Glacier with North face above in cloud.jpg
Description: JPEG image
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