It really makes you think about the hazards of hiking in areas where the risk is moderate (or higher for that matter). Looks like it was about 3m of snow.

There are a fair number of stories on canada.com about it.

http://www.canada.com/search/story.a...d-722ca6f798d5

http://www.canada.com/search/story.a...e-1b7a1e8877c8

http://www.canada.com/search/story.a...7-848a396dc490

http://www.canada.com/search/story.a...1-fe2ce349b8d9

I see that snowboarding pioneer Craig Kelly was one of those killed

I saw the interview on the TV news last night of one of the survivors, I believe it was John Seibert, who went down with the avalanche but ended up with his head and one hand sticking out. Other skiers came by, made sure he could breathe, and left him to search for the other buried people. He said it was like swimming down the roughest river trying to keep his head above water, then when it stops it's like concrete.

I was surfing the web last night and came across some guy who was selling this device for snowmobilers that inflates into a large air bag on the back of your pack by pulling a rip cord. I wonder if such a device would really help keep you near the surface of the avalanche?

The Alpine Club of Canada website will probably have a good analysis of what happened: http://alpineclub-edm.org/accidents/accident.asp?id=923 (newest updates are at the bottom)