The body of the victim in Sundays Avalanche has finally been removed from the site, seems the risk was too high to go in initially to retrieve him and the weather was not cooperating, have a read below for the full update:

Search and rescue crews have recovered the body of a Calgary-area man killed in an avalanche while backcountry skiing in Kokanee Glacier Park on Sunday.

RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk says it was retrieved “without incident” around 2 p.m. and flown back to Nelson via helicopter.

“The majority of search and rescue crew came off the hill. A small portion of the group is still up on the hill, and now we’re [dealing with] the logistics of getting them back down.”

The victim was in his mid-40s, but his name has not yet been released.

He was backcountry skiing with a party of about eight people, although as many as 15 were at the Kokanee Glacier cabin in all. They were a combination of Alberta and B.C. residents.

Moskaluk says it remains unclear whether they will be staying at the cabin or leaving.

“They weren’t part and parcel of the recovery effort because they’re not in any danger,“ he says. “They will determine what they do next via their private air carriers.“

The remainder of the group was uninjured when the slide came down yesterday, although it is still unclear whether anyone else was caught in the slide.

Two local helicopters assisted in the operation today, along with Nelson Search and Rescue, and Ministry of Transportation avalanche technicians.

A helicopter was flown in yesterday from Castlegar following the incident, but forced to turn back due to poor weather.

The initial call came in about 12:30 p.m. yesterday from the Kokanee Glacier cabin that a skier had been buried and suffered life-threatening injuries.

Although he was rescued by his companions within five minutes and treated by a doctor who was part of the group, he was non-responsive.

According to RCMP, the slide occurred at Tanal Peak, and was a magnitude 2.5 avalanche, with a 100-meter long fracture line. It’s not clear what triggered it, nor whether any of the other skiers besides the victim were actually caught in it.

Moskaluk says the group was equipped with the essential probes and tranceivers.

The BC coroner’s office is now investigating, although a coroner has not been on site.

“In this case, safety-wise, it wasn’t suitable for any additional personnel to be on scene other than who was actually required to effect the recovery,” Moskaluk said.

He adds the RCMP will assist in collecting statements over the next few days as the other skiers at the cabin return.

According to Alpine Canada’s website, skiers who access Kokanee Glacier cabin do so by winning a lottery. Visitors stay seven nights, from Saturday to Friday, in a season that runs from January to April.

Orientation is conducted on the Saturday, so the fatal slide occurred on the group’s first full day of skiing.

It’s been a horrendous few days for avalanches in western Canada. Seven people from Calgary survived after being caught in a slide at Fernie Alpine Resort Saturday. One was hospitalized with a leg injury, while the others escaped with cuts and bruises.

Two men were killed while skiing yesterday afternoon when they were buried by an avalanche in Alberta’s Kananaskis Country.

The avalanche risk in the Kootenay Boundary is currently rated high in the alpine and considerable at treeline and below, according to the Canadian Avalanche Centre’s latest bulletin.