Among the last words Shannon Reynolds heard her husband Kurtis say before he ventured out into the backcountry where he was killed by avalanche was: “Honey, I’ll be careful.”
Now the mother of two young boys in Strathmore is left grieving the loss of the love of her life who, along with friend and business partner Shay Snortland, were swallowed up in Saturday’s deadly slide during a snowmobiling event on Boulder Mountain near Revelstoke, B.C.
Through sobs, Shannon recalled how she warned her husband about the avalanche risk before he left on his trip.
“I told them Friday morning — he said, ‘honey, we know, we’ll be careful,’” she said, her voice breaking.
Shannon said while other 200 attendees of the annual, unsanctioned high-marking competition, called the Big Iron Shootout, are more experienced snowmobilers, her husband was only a spectator and had been on a sled twice and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“It was his second time ever on a sled — they just wanted to go watch,” she said.
“He was just going for their guy’s weekend.”
“A lot of these guys were adrenaline junkies, my husband was a spectator.” Reynolds, 33, leaves behind two sons, Kadin, 9, and Cole, 5.
“He loved his kids — his passion was me and the kids,” she said, adding she and her husband had been together since high school and married for 11 years.
Reynolds and Snortland, his business partner of K&S Oilfield Hauling, were on two separate sides of the bowl when the slide struck and swept them down.
Her husband was wearing an avalanche beacon was dug out by another sledder, but it was too late.
“He was taken kilometre down the hill and he was found right away,” she said.
“It was too late — he was already gone.”
She said because it’s the B.C. backcountry, the provincial government should have restricted access into the area knowing there were avalanche warnings out for the area.
“They should have stepped in to stop it,” she said.
“When they know there is going to be hundreds of people in one spot, it bothers me they let them up.”
He said the group of friends he went with are shaken up from the tragedy.
“Those guys are pretty traumatized,” she said.
“They lost all their best friends.”
katie.schneider@sunmedia.ca
