‘An employer needs to get an assessment of avalanche risks from a qualified person and formulate a plan if the working environment includes risky terrain’
WorkSafeBC has launched an investigation into a fatal avalanche involving a heli-ski operation in northwestern British Columbia, treating the slide as a serious workplace incident and warning employers they remain responsible for managing avalanche risks wherever their employees work.
The agency said it was notified about Sunday’s slide on Mount Knauss, north of Terrace, as a “serious workplace incident” and has deployed investigators to determine what happened and whether similar tragedies can be prevented, according to a report from The Canadian Press (CP).
The avalanche killed three guests of White Wilderness Heliskiing and critically injured a guide, who survived and is undergoing surgery in Vancouver.
The WorkSafeBC probe runs alongside investigations by the BC Coroners Service and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
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B.C.’s occupational health and safety regulation
In the wake of the incident, WorkSafeBC issued a bulletin reminding employers that, under B.C.’s occupational health and safety regulation, they must ensure workers are not exposed to uncontrolled hazards when working in or travelling through avalanche terrain.
Andrew Kidd, director of prevention field services at WorkSafeBC, said that obligation is central to employer due diligence.
“It’s absolutely fundamental to making sure that our workers, our most valuable assets are protected while at their work and that they go home to their families and their loved ones in as good or better shape as they got to work,” Kidd said of employer responsibility for assessing avalanche risks, according to the CP report.
Kidd said employers cannot treat outdoor or remote settings as outside the reach of safety rules. If staff are working in or near avalanche terrain, “an employer needs to get an assessment of avalanche risks from a qualified person and formulate a plan if the working environment includes risky terrain.”
He said those duties extend beyond having a plan on paper. Employers must also “ensure conditions are continuously monitored, workers are properly trained, supervised, and informed, and that work is postponed or stopped when conditions are unsafe.”
WorkSafeBC said it accepted 23 avalanche‑related injury claims between 2014 and 2024, including one fatality and 11 serious injuries.
Details on the incident
White Wilderness Heliskiing says the avalanche struck a guided group on the Iridium Shoulder ski run on Mount Knauss on Sunday. Guiding manager Michael Brackenhofer said four people were “fully buried” in the slide, CP reported.
“The victims were located through a transceiver search and visual clues from deployed airbags,” Brackenhofer said in a written statement, adding that all four were dug out within 15 minutes, according to the report.
The company’s guide was flown to a hospital in Terrace with critical injuries and later transferred to Vancouver, where Brackenhofer said the guide was in stable condition and undergoing surgery. The three guests did not survive.
“The WWH team sends its heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the three guests who lost their lives in this incident,” he said, CP noted.
In response, White Wilderness Heliskiing has suspended operations “until further notice.”
Deadly weekend and elevated avalanche hazard
The Mount Knauss slide came during a deadly weekend in B.C.’s backcountry. Another skier was killed Sunday about 500 kilometres away near Atlin, in the province’s remote northwest, after a group of five triggered a slide that buried the victim under 1.5 metres of snow.
Avalanche Canada public forecaster Zoe Ryan said March is statistically “the most dangerous month” for avalanches as the snowpack transitions towards spring and temperatures rise.
Ryan said conditions in northern B.C., including the areas where both weekend fatalities occurred, remain particularly concerning because the snowpack there is still in a mid‑winter state, with weak layers buried deep below the surface and difficult to detect, according to CP.
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