Deadly backcountry plunge

Photo: Nanaimo Search and Rescue

A volunteer search and rescue organization on Vancouver Island is mourning the loss of one of its founding members.

Nanaimo Search and Rescue has posted a note on Facebook, saying Karl Baker will be remembered as "an avid outdoorsman and loving family man."

The 52-year-old Nanaimo resident, who worked with the rescue organization for 15 years, starting in the early 1990s, died on Feb. 10 while snowmobiling near Whistler.

RCMP said Baker was sledding near Callaghan Lake Provincial Park when he stopped on a cornice, an overhanging ledge of snow extending from the side of a precipice, and it collapsed.

Baker and his sled plunged 75 metres and were partially buried.

In the post, Nanaimo Search and Rescue members thank their counterparts at Whistler Search and Rescue, as well as Whistler RCMP and several bystanders, for their efforts to dig Baker out and revive him.