EAGLE VALLEY
NEWS
Truck driver impressed by hospitality Page 3
Sgt. Scott West joins Sicamous detachment Page 8
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 PM40008236
Vol. 60 No. 2 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.25 (GST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com
Snowmobile accident kills Shuswap man By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
A Blind Bay man died at the scene of a snowmobiling accident that occurred Friday near Sicamous. The BC Coroners Service stated on Monday that David Mark Yule, 49, was killed on Friday, Jan. 9, after the snowmobile he was on went over a steep cliff. The incident occurred in the backcountry of the Owlhead snowmobiling area. Police, the BC Ambulance Service and search and rescue crews from Vernon and the Shuswap were called to the accident scene at approximately 12:30 p.m. Sicamous RCMP Cpl. J.R. Lechky reports that upon arrival, authorities learned the 49-year-old had mistakenly driven his sled off a cliff, estimated to be 40 feet high. Paramedics with BC Ambulance Service’s helicopter service and the Vernon search team arrived within an hour, said Lechky, but were unable to resuscitate Yule, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Gord Bushell, general manager of the Eagle Valley Snowmobile Club, said he and the sledding community are upset by the incident and expressed their condolences to Yule’s family and friends. Bushell called the incident an unfortunate accident, and said Yule had been well-prepared to sled the backcountry. “He was off on an un-groomed trail, he was in the backcountry and he wasn’t doing anything stupid,” said Bushell. “It was just an incident where he was coming down the hill and he ended up going over a cliff and wasn’t able to get away from the sled.”
Trail: Above is the trail head for the Owlhead sledding area. Photo by sledsicamous.com
Highway closure: Eastbound truckers wait in their vehicles parked along the Trans-Canada Highway, at the Husky Travel Centre and elsewhere in town last Wednesday morning. Photo by Lachlan Labere
Heavy snowfall cripples highway travel
Power outages: Close to 4,000 B.C. Hydro customers impacted. By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
Heavy snowfall, a highway closure and repeated power outages brought Sicamous to a standstill early last week. Between Monday and Tuesday, the community received about a half-meter of snow – similar to Salmon Arm and other parts of the Shuswap and North Okanagan. Environment Canada meteorologist Lisa Coldwells attributed the storm to a surge of cold Arctic air from the Yukon that settled into the valleys and was covered by a large warm air mass originating in Hawaii. “The two (air masses) are battling it out,” said Coldwells Monday. “And there has been
a continuous flow; that’s one of the keys for making it snow for what seems forever.” Schools were closed Monday and Tuesday as a result of the snowfall and the subsequent power outages that began Monday evening, and weren’t resolved until early Wednesday, impacted approximately 3,900 customers in the area. “The storm caused trees to fall into our transmission line and knock it out of service several times yesterday, which resulted in several power outages in Sicamous,” said BC Hydro spokesperson Mary Anne Coules. “The trees were weighed down from the enormous amount of snow we’ve had and the freezing rain on See Truck drivers on page 2
Damage: A tree weighed down by heavy snow caught a telephone wire while crashing on top of a pickup truck parked at a Forest Park Street residence. Photo by Lachlan Labere