Tim Jensen thinks he saw how the avalanche started.

The Kelowna resident was half way up the cliff chair Sunday morning when the avalanche occurred at the Parachute Bowl just before 11 a.m.

“From where I was sitting I could see a group of snowboards near the top of the Parachute Bowl. One of them in particular decided to go off the side and jump off some rocks. When he came down, his landing was really rough, he didn’t land very well, he did a tumble and then he came around and his snowboard dug in really hard. When he hit the ground that hard, it started a crack and the snow slid out and the crack continued all the way down under the chair lift,” says Jensen.

He says it looked like the snowboarder fell about 15 feet from the rocks.

“I’d been watching the snowboarders come up on the right hand side as I went up on the chair lift. This one snowboarder decided to jump over all these rocks to make an extravagant move, which didn’t work out that well.”

Jensen says he didn’t see what happened to the snowboards after the avalanche started.

“I was riding the chair up with my wife and kids and when the avalanche started, it sent snow and ice flying at us, so I was obviously more interested in that then watching what happened to them. It sounded like a thunderstorm and an earthquake happening at the same time.”

He says he spoke with the RCMP and told them what he saw.

“They were very interested in what I saw. I gave them some photos I took from the chair after the avalanche and they said they will call me again on Monday.”

At least two people were partially buried in the snow, but no one is believed to have been seriously injured.