The decent snow conditions and the heady buzz of anticipation should have been a good omen for the Grimsby, Ont., group when it hit the slopes of Revelstoke Mountain Resort.
Steve Babb, 46, his son Colin, 16, and family friend Sam Vogel, 17, visited the B.C. mountain town as an exam week getaway and had limited time to enjoy the freedom of whizzing down the hills.
Around 1 p.m. on Thursday, the midget hockey coach and the teens, both talented minor hockey players, glided off the Ripper Chair ski lift and into the powder of the mountain's north bowl, a moderately difficult run.
For reasons unexplained, they decided to go out of bounds - off the run and into a steep, wooded area with a hard-packed surface, said Sergeant Art Kleinsmith from the Revelstoke RCMP detachment. They took off their skis and tried to ascend the icy chute, an inclined trough on the mountainside. But they slid down 100 metres on the rough ground and then over a cliff.
Mr. Babb and Mr. Vogel died at the bottom, their bodies broken by the fall. Colin Babb survived to make a frantic 911 call from his cellphone, Sgt. Kleinsmith said. An ambulance arrived at 3 p.m. and took the young man to Vernon, B.C., with a badly sprained ankle and bruises.
"This boy was hysterical, he was injured, he was in a place he didn't want to be and it was getting dark," Sgt. Kleinsmith said.
The bodies were left on the hill overnight, according to the Revelstoke Times Review.
The RCMP has not released the skiers' names, but friends in the close-knit community near St. Catharines, Ont., are devastated by the loss of these upstanding members of the Grimsby Minor Hockey scene.
"They're friends of ours, they have friends everywhere," Ken Watson, president of Grimsby Minor Hockey, said last night. "This is going to go right through our community."
Mr. Babb was a pilot for Air Canada and played with Mr. Watson in Grimsby's old-timer league.
Mr. Vogel was an all-star midget player and had a particularly bright future in the sport, Mr. Watson said. His father, Keith Vogel, is a planner for the Town of Grimsby.
Another of Mr. Babb's sons, Scott, also went on the trip, but doesn't seem to have been on the hill, Mr. Watson said.
The group had been staying at the Powder Springs Inn, a popular hotel across the road from Revelstoke Mountain Resort, which issued a statement yesterday expressing condolences to the families. Grimsby Mayor Bob Bentley said his town is in shock.
"It's terrible news for everybody today," he said, adding that Mr. Babb was a close friend. "It is certainly devastating for our community."
The Babb family arrived in Revelstoke yesterday and the family of Mr. Vogel was on its way last night, Sgt. Kleinsmith said, adding that the investigation continues.
Revelstoke Mountain Resort has witnessed death on its slopes before.
A 24-year-old Edmonton man was killed in December, 2007, on the resort's opening weekend, his body found in-bounds after a three-day search.
Last year was marked by tragedies for skiers who ventured out of bounds.
Last February, Quebec skier Marie-Josée Fortin died on the hills of the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, B.C., after going out of bounds with her spouse, Gilles Blackburn. In March, a 14-year-old snowboarder was rescued out of bounds on Vancouver Island's Mount Washington, both of his legs broken.
Sgt. Kleinsmith played down the issue of straying from ski runs in this week's incident.
"I don't think it's any more of a problem here than any other resort in B.C.," he said. "They all have boundaries and signs [that warn skiers against it]."
