Three men from Quebec’s Eastern Townships are dead after being buried by an avalanche in the Chic-Choc Mountains on the province’s Gaspé Peninsula.
Around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Quebec’s provincial police received an emergency call from an individual who’d been out snowbiking—similar to snowmobiling but with a single ski at the front—with three friends in the Mont Médaille sector of the Chic-Choc Mountains. An avalanche had occurred, burying three men.
With help from the local fire department and paramedics, police were able to locate the three individuals by probing the snow and using a RECCO detector that emits a directional radar signal, similar to the beam of a flashlight.
The avalanche’s crown. Photo courtesy of Avalanche Canada
The three individuals were transported to a local hospital around 11 p.m. where they were pronounced dead. Quebec’s coroner’s office confirmed the identities of the deceased: Joël Crête, 35, and Nicolas Vanasse, 30, from Coaticook, and Bryan Forgues Morissette, 33, from Saint-Denis-de-Brompton.
After performing an investigation of the accident site, Avalanche Quebec confirmed that the snowbikes had triggered the avalanche. “We had a recent snowfall, and then we did have some significant warming on Monday/Tuesday, and that snow was just sitting there waiting for another trigger, and that trigger was the snowbike that crossed over the slope,” says Julie LeBlanc, a public avalanche forecaster with Avalanche Quebec.
The avalanche occurred in a forested ravine at low elevation. Above the ravine was a plateau where snow had built up over the last few days. LeBlanc says the snow on the slope leading into the ravine was approximately 3.5 metres deep. By driving across the snow, the snowbikers triggered a wet slab avalanche, which is the release of a cohesive layer of moist snow. The avalanche was 150 metres wide with a 100-metre-long track.
The avalanche’s path. Photo courtesy of Avalanche Canada
According to LeBlanc, narrow ravines like this are referred to as terrain traps. “You’re trapped in the terrain because of the configuration of the slope, so anything, even a small avalanche, could have high consequences because there’s nowhere to go,” she says.
One of the individuals was buried up to three metres deep. “Above 1.5 metres is what we call a deep burial and that was almost twice as deep,” LeBlanc says. The fourth individual, who made the emergency call, managed to avoid the avalanche by standing on the side of the slope, out of the avalanche’s path, when the other three drove across.
While this sector of the Chic-Choc Mountains doesn’t fall within Avalanche Quebec’s purvey, the organization did issue an avalanche warning over the weekend as the area is a popular destination for snowmobilers.
Photo courtesy of Avalanche Canada
To increase the chances of surviving an avalanche, LeBlanc suggests taking an avalanche training course which teaches participants how to identify the conditions that can cause an avalanche and how to perform a rescue.
“If you’re able to self-rescue, you’re going to increase your chances of survival,” she says. An individual’s chance of surviving decreases dramatically after being buried for more than 15 minutes. That’s why anyone heading out into avalanche territory should be trained and carrying avalanche rescue gear, such as shovels, probes, and transceivers.
Finally, check if the area has an avalanche centre before heading out. “Avalanche centres synthesize information to communicate how risky it is to go out today versus yesterday versus next week,” LeBlanc says. “If you go through an area where there’s some sort of information available, make sure you check the forecast.”
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