Report of missing snowmobiler after avalanche in Shuswap; search underway

CHASE – Search and rescue teams have been dispatched to help look for a snowmobiler who is missing and was possibly buried in an avalanche today in the Shuswap.

Acting Sgt. Gord Sauer at the Chase RCMP detachment says they received the first call about the missing snowmobiler in the Crowfoot Mountain area near Celista at around 11:30 a.m., March 13.

Sauer says the investigation is in the very preliminary stages right now.

According to the report to police, three people were snowmobiling in the Crowfoot Mountain area when there was an avalanche.

“It sounds as if one may have been caught in (the) avalanche,” Sauer says.

He says police are trying to establish contact with the people who called in the initial report and who are currently on the scene looking for the missing snowmobiler, but have been unable to so far.

“We are still in the very preliminary stages as we try to sort this all out,” he says.

Alan Hobler with Kamloops Search and Rescue says they have a team responding to help with the search, along with volunteers from Shuswap Search and Rescue.

Hobler says a helicopter will take his team to the mountain where they will conduct “a probe and beacon search” for the missing man.

Crowfoot Mountain is a popular snowmobiling area north of Shuswap Lake and about 36 kilometres from Chase.

Sauer says the RCMP will provide more information to the public as it becomes available.

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