A couple of more thoughts about the avalanche mentioned in yesterday's post.

The seven students who perished were among a group of 17. All of whom were buried. Two guides higher up the mountain when the slide hit were on the scene in minutes. The first person they uncovered had a satellite phone which was used to call for help. Participants of a near-by avalanche recovery training exercise were air-lifted in to help find and extricate 10 of those under the snow -- this according to a report on last night's CBC news.

Perhaps most tragically of all is that this is the second slide to kill seven people in the space of two weeks, in the mountains close to Revelstoke, B.C. The January 29, 2003 "on-line" edition of the Revelstoke Times Review contains details of an avalanche which killed seven. Sadly, the February 5, 2003 edition will contain another story of seven deaths in an avalanche.