Woman jailed for sex assault
Rescued after fall into river
Killer not happy with show
Facial recognition at border?
PM ups attacks on Poilievre
CRA will get the money: PM
Instagram fraudster jailed
11 Trump allies indicted
Ukraine uses new missiles
BoC officials split on rate cut
Big loss for Boeing 
Metro sales edged higher
Vees dominating Vipers
Warriors snakebitten in loss
Iginla off to Europe
Coachella fined $28K
Those are her nipples
Kanye to launch porn studio
It was a busy New Year's Eve for search and rescue volunteers in the Kootenays, with crews responding to two separate incidents in the backcountry.
At 2 p.m., Whitewater Ski Resort outside of Nelson reported a large Size 3 avalanche just outside their ski area boundary, on an area known as “Whale's Back.”
A Size 3 avalanche has the potential to bury vehicles, destroy small buildings and break trees.
Whitewater ski patrol determined seven people were involved in the incident, but luckily, no one was buried or injured.
Nelson Search and Rescue conducted a search of the area by helicopter using a helicopter-mounted avalanche transceiver, and determined no other people were caught in the massive slide.
Earlier last week, four people and two dogs were caught in an avalanche near Friday's large slide, and two people seriously injured.
At 3:30 p.m. on Friday, while Nelson Search and Rescue crews were still involved in the “Whale's Back” avalanche search, NSAR crews were called in help assist the Castlegar Search and Rescue after an SOS signal had come in from the Lightning Strike Ridge area of Kootenay Pass.
A backcountry user had injured their knee, and required rescue.
“With lack of light for a helicopter evacuation and temperatures again dropping below -20, ground teams were able to rescue the subject and hand him of to the BC Ambulance waiting on Hwy 3A near Kootenay Pass summit,” NSAR wrote on Facebook.
After their heroic efforts, all 15 members of Castlegar and Nelson search and rescues who were involved made it home by 11:30 p.m., just in time to ring in the new year.
The avalanche danger rating for the Kootenay-Boundary region remains 'Considerable' in the alpine and treeline areas, and Avalanche Canada says a buried weak layer in the area has "produced a number of large and surprising natural and skier-triggered avalanches."
