Avid snowmobiler Chris McCoy, 36, of Sylvan Lake, died after being buried in an avalanche near Revelstoke Saturday afternoon.
Affectionately known as a “sled head”, he was trying to help another snowmobiler on Boulder Mountain in West Kootenay when he was caught in an avalanche, his wife Kathy told the Edmonton Journal.
“A guy got stuck and Chris went to help him,” she said. “I don’t know if that triggered the avalanche. Both Chris and the guy whose sled got stuck were caught in it.”
“So he actually died saving somebody,” she said in an interview with the Calgary Sun.
A group of four snowmobilers from Alberta — his brother and co-workers — were near the Boulder Mountain snowmobile cabin when an avalanche was triggered, RCMP Cst. Lesley Smith said in a news release.
McCoy was found unconscious and later died of his injuries. The man he went to help survived with non-life-threatening injuries.
All snowmobilers were equipped with appropriate safety gear and beacons, Smith said.
Chris McCoy’s brother was with him at the time, Kathy McCoy said. “His brother was there trying to dig him out É They tried to resuscitate him and it didn’t work. It was too late.”
Her husband had been away from his family since Wednesday for work and celebrated his 36th birthday on Valentine’s Day. He dreamed of one day owning his own sport utility dealership and thought of his position at Cycle Works in Red Deer as an important step toward that goal.
He loved snowmobiling, Kathy McCoy told CBC. “That was his passion, that was his life. That was what he lived and breathed.”
She treasures memories of a trip at Christmas time, when her husband took her and her two teenage sons snowmobiling on the same mountain near Revelstoke.
“He had a smile on his face and itw as pretty much there until we came back,” she said in an interview with Canadian Press. “It was a permanent smile for the whole Christmas holidays. Nothing made him happier than when he was in the mountains.”
“He was a big kid at heart,” she’s quoted. “His quote was ‘get ‘er done’. That’s what he lived for. He lived for sledding.”