A week after two Nelson police officers were caught in an avalanche that claimed the life of 43-year-old Const. Wade Tittemore, one of Nelson’s most experienced backcountry guides says the conditions in the backcountry are reminiscent of the 1998 Silverspray disaster.

John Buffrey, avalanche expert, told Kootenay Morning on Friday that the conditions that the two officers met while skiing in the backcountry had been brewing over the past months.

“In the mountains where they were, there is a lot of rock outcroppings close to the ground, and with our cold autumn we had, and early winter, the grains of snow that grow around there are quite hollow, so they are apt to collapse,” said Buffrey.

“It’s really hard to figure out the uniformity of slopes like that, and hit a sweet spot where that collapse could happen is kind of prominent in that area where they were.”

Similar conditions were observed in the January 1998 disaster which claimed the lives of six people north of Kaslo, Buffrey said.

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