Three B.C. avalanche victims identified as snow sport industry veterans

The partner of a victim in Monday’s avalanche that killed three snow sport veterans in British Columbia’s Purcell Mountains says she tried to dig him out and revive him after arriving on the scene.

Whistler-based professional snowboarder and filmmaker Leanne Pelosi says on social media that it’s “absolutely beyond devastating” to share news of Jeff Keenan’s death.

Keenan, who was also a pro snowboarder and had a young son with Pelosi, was among a group of heli-skiers swept away by the avalanche in southeast B.C.

North Vancouver’s Mount Seymour ski resort said in a social media post that Keenan “was a huge part of the snowboard community” and part of a group “that helped define snowboarding” in the 1990s and 2000s.

An online obituary identified another victim as snow-sport industry veteran Alex Pashley, 45, a marketing manager for winter apparel company The North Face, which mourned his loss and praised him for bringing an “irreplaceable sense of levity to the most difficult expeditions.”

Stellar Heli Skiing, based in Kaslo, B.C., says the third victim was a 53-year-old guide, who was identified as the company’s founder Jason Remple in a tribute from an internet firm that worked with Stellar.

“Jason was more than a partner, he was a friend, an inspiration, and a true leader in the outdoor adventure community,” said the online post by VentureWeb Design.

Police said on Tuesday that a fourth man, a 40-year-old from Nelson, B.C., was rescued after the avalanche and was in critical condition.

RCMP said in a news release that the slide came down on the east side of Kootenay Lake.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2025.

The Canadian Press