Yoho National Park (freddofrancisco/Instagram)

By The Canadian Press

skiing tragedy

Oil and gas company confirms death of one of its employees in Yoho avalanche

Apr 24, 2019 | 2:14 PM

An oil and gas company has identified one of its employees as a man who died after an avalanche in Yoho National Park.

Amerisur Resources says Dana Coffield, a non-executive director with the company, died when he was skiing in the Rocky Mountains on the weekend.

Parks Canada has said three people were involved in the Saturday avalanche on Des Poilus Glacier on the Wapta Icefield, approximately 180 kilometres northwest of Calgary.

STARS Air Ambulance took one man to hospital in critical condition and Parks Canada later confirmed he had died.

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The other two people in the party were not injured.

Amerisur extended its sympathies to the Coffield family.

“It is with the greatest sadness that we learned of the death of Dana, who contributed so significantly to Amerisur,” chairman Giles Clarke said in a statement. “Dana, and all that he brought us, will be greatly missed.”

Saturday’s avalanche was not connected to another one that happened last Tuesday on Howse Peak in Banff National Park and claimed the lives of three professional climbers.

Efforts to find the three men — American Jess Roskelley and Austrians David Lama and Hansjorg Auer — were hampered by poor weather and dangerous conditions but officials were able to recover their bodies Sunday.

Avalanche danger in the Rocky Mountains continues to be variable.

In a daily avalanche bulletin posted late Tuesday, officials with Parks Canada recommended travelling early in the day as conditions can change quickly in short periods of time due to daytime warming.

(The Canadian Press)