Early Lake Louise Avalanche Kills Skier

LAKE LOUISE, ALBERTA On Sunday, September 25, Trevor Sexsmith, 27, was killed in an avalanche on Mount Victoria in Banff National Park. Sexsmith, a Golden, B.C. resident, was a passionate backcountry skier who spent much of his time exploring the Canadian Rockies. “Between skiing and his friends, it all really revolved around skiing and a passion for skiing,” his brother Brian told the CBC News after the accident. “He really saw a lot of the Rockies that most people don’t see.”

At the time of the avalanche, Sexsmith and his ski partner had already begun to descend the mountain due to poor weather conditions. “We suspect that the first skier triggered a slab avalanche that we class as a size one. It has a crown that was probably 20- or 30-metres wide and 10- to 15-centimetres deep,” Tim Haggarty, Visitor Safety Technician for Parks Canada reported to the CBC News.

Global News reports that snowfall had accumulated over the previous week in Banff National Park and that Parks Canada personnel were aware that windloading could pose a potential threat higher on the route up Mount Victoria.

While there were no witnesses to the accident, Haggarty told Global News that he believes Sexsmith’s partner may have triggered the deadly avalanche when the pair spilt up to descend a difficult terrain feature. “He would have been pushed, probably, by this avalanche down the slope—a steep snow slope, about 40 degrees—for a few hundred meters before he would have been pushed over a large cliff,” he explained.

Global News reports that the surviving skier was able to find Sexsmith in the avalanche debris as it was not a full-body burial, but resuscitation was not possible. He then returned to the Six Glaciers Tea House where he called for help, but body retrieval was not possible due to the high winds on Sunday.

In his interview with Global News, Haggarty made clear that while it is still early in the winter season, avalanches are still possible with the right conditions. “Anytime you look out towards the mountains here, and they’re white and the wind is blowing, you can expect that there would be slabs forming in the mountains and mountaineers have to be very careful.”