Avalanche Survivors Evacuated

Ten survivors were evacuated by air Tuesday from a remote lodge in the Canadian Rockies where they took refuge after an avalanche that killed seven back-country skiers, including a champion U.S. snowboarder and three other Americans, two from California.

One of the survivors, John Seibert of Wasilla, Alaska, said the skiers were climbing a 30-degree slope Monday afternoon when he suddenly “felt the snow settle and heard a loud crack.” Seconds later, Seibert told CNN, he was buried up to his neck in snow as hard as concrete.

Seibert and 13 others were dug out and escaped serious injury, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said, but seven skiers who were buried in up to 15 feet of snow apparently suffocated.

Police identified the dead as Craig Kelly, 36, a four-time world champion snowboarder from the United States who lived in British Columbia; Dennis Yates, 50, a ski instructor from Hollywood; Kathy Kessler, 39, an outdoorswoman and environmental activist from Truckee, Calif.; Ralph Lunsford, 49, of Littleton, Colo.; Dave Finnery, 30, of New Westminster, Canada; Naomi Heffler, 25, of Calgary, Canada; and a 50-year-old man from Canmore, Canada, whose identity was being withheld pending notification of relatives.

Two Marina del Rey residents, Eric Klosterman, 53, and Linda Terris, 44, were among the survivors.

Most of those who lived through the massive snowslide were forced to spend the night on the 7,000-foot mountain when thick fog grounded Mounted Police helicopters. Ten were flown to Revelstoke, about 33 miles away and 250 miles northeast of Vancouver, when the weather improved late Tuesday. Three chose to remain at the lodge, police said.

Avalanche experts were flown to the steep slope in the Selkirk Range, where conditions had been rated hazardous Monday. Kenny Kramer, an avalanche specialist at the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center in Seattle, said Monday’s slide was probably caused when a weak layer of snow beneath the surface suddenly gave way.

One injured man, who was not identified, was evacuated by helicopter late Monday and taken to Queen Victoria Hospital in Revelstoke, where he was treated and released.

Officials said numerous avalanches have been reported in western Canada in the last five years and have killed 50 people. Among them was Michel Trudeau, a son of the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Dave Corneliuson, 47, a veteran staff member with Selkirk Tangiers Ski Tours in Revelstoke, said British Columbians have come to accept avalanches as “a part of nature.”

“It’s very sad, but they’re just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.

Ingrid Boaz with Selkirk Mountain Experience in Revelstoke said the skiing party organized by the company had formed over the weekend and been helicoptered to a chalet belonging to the firm, at 6,360 feet in the rugged mountains near Durrand Glacier.

Seibert said the 21 skiers split up into two groups Monday and were slowly climbing a slope when a huge wall of snow broke loose about 300 feet above them. The skiers in the upper party were able to dig out, but those below were buried.

Several of the uninjured skiers began digging and were soon joined by rescuers brought in by helicopter. The injured man and the bodies of the seven who died were evacuated by helicopter before the fog rolled in.

Seibert, a veteran back-country skier, said Tuesday that despite official warnings that conditions were hazardous, he had seen nothing to indicate danger.

Kelly, who won four world snowboarding championships and three U.S. Open championships in the 1980s while living in Mount Vernon, Wash., dropped out of the professional circuit in 1991 and moved to British Columbia. There, he did promotional work for Burton Snowboards of Burlington, Vt., which produced several snowboards bearing his name, and worked as a back-country guide.

“Craig is the rider who put professionalism into team riding,” said Jake Burton, president of Burton Snowboards.

Kelly, a father of two, began snowboarding in 1985 and won his first title in 1986.

Yates, a ski instructor, guide and guitarist, lived with his wife, Carol, in the Hollywood Hills, said Dena Mor, a family friend. Carol Yates did not accompany her husband on the trip.

“He was a larger-than-life man with a huge heart,” Mor said.

In the High Sierra town of Truckee, Kessler was remembered as a skillful outdoorswoman who swam, biked, hiked and skied. She and her husband, Scott -- who did not accompany her on the trip to British Columbia -- were often seen tooling about on a motorcycle. The couple had no children.

“She was bright, adventurous,” said Carla Stokes, co-owner of Tahoe Resort Properties, where Kessler was a real estate saleswoman. “She was a live-life-hard kind of person.”

Kessler worked for many years with the Nevada County environmental health department.

A friend, Emilie Kashtan, said that Kessler was an excellent skier. “Nature just had its way,” Kashtan said in an e-mail sent to friends Tuesday. “She died doing what she loved to do.”

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Hall reported from Revelstoke and Malnic from Los Angeles. Times staff writers John Glionna in San Francisco, Usha Lee McFarling in Los Angeles and Eric Bailey in Sacramento contributed to this report.