Canada’s first recorded avalanche fatalities nearly 250 years ago would have been lost to time if it weren’t for a letter’s postscript.
In the early winter of 1782, at the end of correspondence to missionaries, condolences were offered following a local tragedy in the Inuit community of Nain, N.L.
“There gathered a monstrous body of snow which shot all at once down and pressed the winter hauss even with the ground, with all the people in it excepting one man who was buried in the snow without.”
The 22 people who died in Nain were the first recorded avalanche fatalities in Canadian history. Their memory is included in a new interactive map released by Avalanche Canada that shows every known avalanche-related death in the country.
The federally funded project was three years in the making. It includes 559 avalanches that have caused a total of 1,063 deaths, starting with the Nain incident and ending with the most recent fatalities in March 2025 when three people died north of Kaslo, B.C.
Avalanche Canada executive director Gilles Valade said the map provides an accessible history of avalanche-related deaths that he hopes adds to education efforts for anyone accessing the backcountry.
“Avalanches and avalanche risk are very dynamic. It’s not very predictable. It’s not like one solution fits all. It’s so variable that the more information you have, the better it’ll be for the future.”
When and where avalanche deaths occur has gradually changed since the 18th century.
The first avalanche deaths are recorded in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and New Brunswick, but spread across the country to the Rocky Mountains as white settlers colonized the west.
The majority of early deaths in Avalanche Canada’s records are at industrial sites where train tracks and later roads were built. B.C’s first recorded death was Feb. 4, 1885 on Rogers Pass, and was followed by another just two days later further down the route, as workers constructed the Canadian Pacific Railway line.
Rogers Pass was also the site of the worst avalanche in Canadian history. Fifty-eight workers (32 of whom were Japanese labourers) died on March 4, 1910 when they were hit by a slide while clearing snow off train tracks.
Some deaths appear to be random. On Feb. 23, 1957, for example, an Anglican minister was driving from Nelson to Kaslo when he was stopped by a slide that had covered the highway. As he tried to shovel a path through the snow for his car, a second avalanche occurred and buried him.
But the nature of deaths change in the 20th century as people begin to access the backcountry for recreation.
“Nobody thought 75 years ago that you would just go in avalanche ranges for fun in the mountains except if you’re looking to find some gold or putting a track for a railroad or some highway,” said Valade.
The first such death was of a skier on Dec. 31, 1937 on Mount Shaffer, B.C., but more occur in the late 1950s and 1960s as mountaineering and backcountry skiing become popular.
The last avalanche fatalities at an industrial site happened Jan. 12, 1982 in Terrace, B.C., where one person was killed after a slide buried workers who were clearing out old avalanche debris.
Now most incidents in Canada occur in B.C.
Avalanche Canada’s database doesn’t feature victim’s names, but notable tragedies are included such as the avalanche that killed former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brother Michel in 1998 at Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park, and the 2023 slide that killed two Nelson police officers.
Avalanche-related deaths have declined since the 2002-2003 season when 29 people were killed, but Valade said more research is required to show how future tragedies might be avoided. The map, he said, is just one part of that effort.
“It’s fine to understand what happened in 1937, but I think what we want to know is what happened the last 20 years, because that’s what we’re dealing with, the equipment we have, the people, and the places we go to.”
Click here to access Avalanche Canada’s map.