A massive avalanche in Glacier National Park has swept away seven children from prominent Calgary families, a group of 15-year-old superachievers full of promise and early accomplishment.
Six boys and one girl, all Grade 10 students at the exclusive Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School south of Calgary, died when they were caught in the avalanche shortly before noon on Saturday in the Connaught Creek Valley on Mount Cheops, about five kilometres west of the Rogers Pass summit in British Columbia. They were among 14 students on a ski trip to the backcountry of the Rocky Mountains, a major annual event that is the culmination of two months of hard training.
Ben Albert, Daniel Arato, Scott Broshko, Michael Shaw, Marissa Staddon, Alex Pattillo and Jeff Trickett all died when the half-kilometre wide wave of snow swallowed their group.
The seven students were the children of Calgary's tight-knit business community; their parents are investment bankers, oil-patch executives and lawyers. But the students were astonishingly accomplished in their own right: musicians, outstanding athletes and gifted scholars. "They were all such great kids, one nicer than the next," said Donna Broshko, whose son Scott is among the dead.
Ms. Broshko, who worried that her son was not aware of the risk he faced, is angry that the group's leaders took the teenagers into an area where they couldn't be sure an avalanche wouldn't happen.
"What were they doing there? That's the part, I guess, that we're having trouble coming to grips with," Ms. Broshko said.
A school official said the students had to cross avalanche zones, but added that proper protocols were being followed. He did not say whether the students were in one of those known avalanche zones when the slide occurred.
Ms. Broshko and the parents of the other dead students are reeling from the loss, with some hoping that, somehow, they are caught up in a big misunderstanding.
"We can't believe we've lost our son," said Peter Arato, whose son Daniel was killed. "We're still not convinced. We're waiting to hear [that]somebody made a big mistake."
Mr. Arato, his voice shaking, said he struggled about sending his son on a field trip to an area where an avalanche in nearby Revelstoke, B.C., had killed seven people two weeks ago.
"One part of your brain says, 'Well, okay, so now it has happened, it's unlikely to happen again.' And the other part of your brain says, 'Well, that's fair warning, now you know there's certain instabilities in certain areas and stay away.' "
Carol Neale was worried about sending her son Ben Albert on the trip, but like his fellow students, Ben loved the outdoor-education class. Two months ago, the class started learning how to telemark ski, a style that uses a combination of cross-country and downhill techniques and equipment. Ben, who had been snowboarding for five years, was eager to test his telemarking skills.
Then, on Saturday evening, Ms. Broshko phoned to tell her that something terrible had happened in Roger's Pass. Ben was dead.
"'I told him I didn't want him to go!' " Ms. Neale screamed, according to Ms. Broskho.
The school said it will bring in experts to conduct an "extensive" investigation, and has cancelled all field trips.
"Our school is a small family, and this loss is extreme for all of us," said Marilyn McCaig, chair of the school's board.
Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School has 94 students in its Grade 10 class and 684 in total for Grades 1 through 12. The private school, which charges $10,700 a year in tuition for senior students, is among the most prestigious in the Calgary area, and is outside Okotoks, about 30 kilometres south of Calgary.
Days before the Grade 10 students started out on their trip to Revelstoke on Friday, they did a dry run, including simulating being stuck in an avalanche. With the help of their outdoor-education teacher, they practised digging each other out of the snow, finding each other's beacons and testing for the probability of an avalanche.
Jill Mahoney