Avalanches in B.C. and Alberta claim 3 more lives

The last couple of weeks ofwarmer weather and wet, heavy snow across have created extremely dangerous avalanche conditions in the mountainous regions of British Columbia and Alberta.

Over the weekend, three people asnowmobilerand twosnowshoers died in two separate avalanches.

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• Lake Louise avalanche victims didn't have proper gear

On Saturday, 34-year-old AdrianJohn "AJ"Cleary of Coldstream, B.C.,was snowmobiling with a group of experienced riders in the Monashee Mountainseast of Vernon when he was caught in an avalanche.

Cleary was buried under about five metres of snow for two hours before rescuers were able to pull him out. Although he was revived, he died several hours later in hospital in Kelowna.

Cleary, a Newfoundlander and the son of Come By Chance Mayor Joan Cleary, had been working in B.C. as a nurse. He leaves behind a wife, who is pregnant with the couple's first child.

Also on Saturday twosnowshoerstravelling in a group of five were killed atLake Louise after an avalanche there. Someone in the group was able to call 911 and rescuers flew in by helicopter

Police said no one in the group hadany avalanche safety gear, such as beacons,transceivers, shovels or probes.

'Fundamentally unstable snowpack'

The Canadian Avalanche Centre's Joe Lammer says much of B.C. and the Rockies is still facing ahigh avalanche risk that goes back to February's cold snap.

"After that first week in February,pretty much throughout the province, those weak layers got buried and, you know, deep in thesnowpackthere is a hard surface plus weak sugary layers, and then this new snow on top,"Lammerssaid.

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"So it is kind of like thathardwood floor with marbles on top of that, and then a big white mattress on top of that. So, just a fundamentally unstablesnowpack," he said.

In some places the danger is at every elevation.This past weekend,several B.C. highways were closed for avalanche control measures, includingHighway 1 betweenRevelstokeand Golden and Highway 3 atKootenayPass.

Photos: B.C.highway avalanche control