It was already dark when Kieren Gaul strapped on a headlamp and skiied through thickly falling snow to the base of the avalanche debris.
And there, in the backcountry of British Columbia's southern interior, Mr. Gaul found him: A young man, half buried, crushed to death by the snow's force.
Mr. Gaul doesn't think it was a very large avalanche -- maybe a size two or three on a scale of five -- that swept the mountain's face Monday afternoon.
If the man hadn't been thrown against a tree in the "terrain trap," where the avalanche's snow pushes up against trees and comes to a stop, Mr. Gaul said, he probably would have survived.
Mr. Gaul knows the area well: He and his wife Paula run Big Red Cats cat-skiing company near Rossland, B.C. The four snowmobile skiers who got caught in the avalanche Monday were snowmobiling along the company's tracks, then skiing off on their own, in an area Mr. Gaul has closed off to guided tourists all season because of the avalanche dangers.
"They were in an area which we knew was prone to avalanches. ... It's marked right on our maps," Paula Gaul said. "They aren't avalanche professionals, so they wouldn't have known. It's not marked - it's the backcountry."
It had snowed nine centimetres the night before, and another seven that day by the time the four snowmobilers were caught around 3 p.m., Mr. Gaul said. The weighty snowpack on slippery ice crystals on the steep, treed slopes were a disaster waiting to happen.
Three of the four snowmobilers were lucky enough to make it out shaken but otherwise unscathed. They phoned the Gauls for help, and RCMP and search and rescue workers arrived shortly afterwards.
The area wasn't safe enough to remove the man's body yesterday, although RCMP Corporal Dan Moskaluk said they would be back Tuesday morning.
Cpl. Moskaluk said the man was in his early 30s, and from Alberta. He's Canada's first avalanche death of the season. Last year, eight snowmobilers died in an avalanche near Fernie, B.C.
Mr. Gaul said he and his wife have tried to dissuade the inexperienced from using their tracks in such difficult terrain, but they can't stop everyone.
"We kept highlighting the dangers to these people and ignoring it. It's really disappointing," he said. "It's just so sad. ... I don't have any idea who the guy who died is, but i'm sure he's a nice young guy. And, you know, it's just a waste."