Chris McCoy was carrying safety gear and beacons on his snowmobile but they did not save him when an avalanche roared down a mountain in western Canada on Saturday.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kathy McCoy

Avalanche victim died helping another: widow

A snowmobiler who was killed by an avalanche in the Canadian Rocky Mountains died helping another man’s who’s vehicle was stuck, according to his widow. 36-year old Chris McCoy was among a group of four snowmobilers who had travelled up Boulder mountain near Revelstoke in the western province of British Columbia on Saturday.

A recent snowfall, sat atop a weak layer of snow which prompted the Canadian Avalanche Centre to update its danger ratings for alpine and treeline terrain to high, and for below treeline to considerable.

It’s not clear which terrain the snowmobilers were in when the avalanche struck.

McCoy’s widow said her husband loved snowmobiling. “That was his passion, that was his life,” said Kathy McCoy “That was what he lived and breathed.”

This is the second avalanche death in B.C. this year. Four years ago, three snowmobilers were killed and 32 were injured in an avalanche on Boulder Mountain.

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