ihagislative Library, Parliament Buildings ‘Victoria B.C., WEDNESDAY, January 8, 1992 iptrang pete a! beeps re Chyler eye ver omnes ie SOR EE 9 sisi V8V 1X4 NCU TEN Vol. 8, Issue No. 2 Phone 635-7840 Fax 635-7269 Serving the communities of Terrace, Thornhill, Usk, Cedarvale, Kitwanga, Meziadin, Stewart and the Nass Valley 75 cents plus GST pee opper Mountain claims two lives | Massive rescue effort unable to save victims - TERRACE RESIDENTS PETER James Dobler, 25, and Perrie William Turner, 33, were buried by an ava- lanche near Copper Moun- tain about 4 p.m. Friday afternoon. ' Authorities and volunteers: staged one of the largest search “and rescue efforts ever organized in the Terrace area, but both men died before they could be located. Now the work of trying to determine why it happened. has begun. According to Search and Res- ‘cue coordinator Gord Sweeting, the two men were part of a group of six Skeena Valley Snowmobile Club members out for a day of fun and recreation: That morning, they unloaded their machines at the base of the. mountain and headed up the eight-kilometre access road to. the B.C. Telephone transmitter tance before the B.C. Telephone building, they swung southeast for the second cight-kilometre leg of their journey to a favour- ite destination, known to snow- mobilers as "The Big Lake". This leg of their journey took them through rugged terrain INSIDE along the ridge between Copper and Thornhill - mountains and beyond. A short ‘Mlistance past Thornhill. Mountain and they were at the threshold of an 800 foot deep basin. At the bottom: | The Big Lake. On the far side of the ridge i is a steep slope where the six snowmobilers would spend the ‘day "high niarking", ‘racing’ a snowmobile up a steep slope until it has all but stopped, then swinging the machine downhill - for a high speed run back to the bottom. -_ The group was getting ready to . leave for home just before 4 p.m., but Dobler and Turner decided to make one last run. Dobler led. He sped up the slope, slowed about a third of the way up, and turned back toward the bottom. Close behind, Turner began his turn, and that’s when things went wrong. His four friends .at the bottom : on Copper Mountain.. _, _.watched in horror as a large [ When they reached the B.C. section of snow above Turner Hydro tower, just a short dis- broke loose and came crashing down on the pair. A witness said . it was over in a matter of S€C- . onds. Sweeting offers piaise for the snowmobilers on the mountain at the time of the tragedy. One — Continued on page 2 _ COMMUNICATIONS POWER. search and rescue volunteers Gord Sweeting and Terry 4 Myhr fire up a portable generator to power radio gear for communications during a search . operation on Copper Mountain last weekend. The search was over by midnight Friday but the L debriefing went on until 5 am. Still, Search and Rescue officials were back at the base of : the mountain early Saturday morning setting up their mobile base. The communications base would be required to assist Skeena Valley Snowmobile Club members carry out a recovery operation if weather didn't permit flying into the avalanche scene. WELCOME TO THE WORLD, | |BROOKE PALAHICKY. A special report — pages 11-15 . . t ~ ~ ~ . o. rer 7 eet Sy . Se OR RE ME RE ae Te oe AM ils . _—