Avalanche Fatality on Logan

[PaulB]

From CBC News story.

 

Last Updated Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:35:58 EDT

An avalanche on Canada's highest mountain killed a Calgary woman and left her climbing partner searching for help for a week.

 

Jessie Aulik, 22, was climbing at about 2,900 metres when she was swept down the east ridge of Mount Logan in the Yukon on May 31.

 

Aulik, who had set a record as youngest person to scale the peak when she was 17, was climbing with a 34-year-old man from Fairbanks, Alaska.

 

He managed to escape the slide but didn't have a satellite phone to call rescue personnel, Yukon RCMP said on Tuesday.

 

The climber tried to find help for a week before he was spotted waving for assistance by a TransNorth helicopter pilot who was flying in the area on Monday afternoon.

 

"The second climber went to the assistance of the deceased, which took approximately a day," Cpl. Tickie Hayes said.

 

"The surviving climber did not receive any injuries at all. He is still in the Haines Junction area, and is being assisted by local community personnel."

 

Officials from Kluane National Park have since recovered Aulik's body and are investigating the incident.

 

Mount Logan, which rises almost 6,000 metres, is notorious for its sudden snow squalls that blow in from the Pacific Ocean.

 

There are about six groups now climbing Mount Logan, with about a month left in the climbing season.

 

Just a few days before the May 31 avalanche, a powerful storm trapped three other climbers near the summit for three days.

 

The men, who were all experienced climbers who had volunteered for years on a Vancouver-area search-and-rescue team, suffered from frostbite and hypothermia.