UPDATE: Snowmobiler rescued from Monashee avalanche identified

LUMBY – A snowmobiler pronounced dead in hospital after he was caught in an avalanche in the central Monashee Mountains has been identified.

He was Adrian John (AJ) Cleary, 34, from Coldstream.

Vernon RCMP say Cleary was with a group of six people snowmobiling east of Lumby when he was buried by approximately five metres of snow at about 2:15 p.m. near Keefer Lake Resort. He was airlifted to Kelowna General Hospital later Saturday afternoon.

The resort’s emergency services personnel along with volunteers from Vernon Search and Rescue recovered the victim.

Matt Devlin with Kingfisher Heliskiing says they were finished with their skiing day when the got the call for assistance.

“We responded, and happened to have our helicopter out there, so we did what we could to help out,” Devlin says.

The injured snowmobiler was loaded onto the helicopter and flown to the Search and Rescue staging area in Cherryville.

From there the victim was treated by B.C. Air Ambulance paramedics and flown by air ambulance to Kelowna General Hospital in serious condition.

An avalanche rescue team from Vernon SAR was on route to the slide but was told to stand down when the missing snowmobiler was found.

To contact the reporter for this story, email halexander@infotelnews.ca or call 250-491-0331.

– This story was updated at 3:04 p.m. March 10 to include details from the B.C. Corners Service.

– This story was updated at 10:01 a.m. Sunday, Mar. 9, 2014 to add rescue details from Matt Devlin.

– This story was updated at 9:26 a.m. Sunday, Mar. 9, 2014 to clarify that a snowmobiler was rescued not a skier with Kingfisher Heliskiing and to add more details from the RCMP.

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