Stewart, B.C. (Google maps)

A 50-year-old surveyor is dead after an avalanche struck while he and a co-worker were working on a steep slope in a remote part of northern British Columbia, police say.

RCMP in Stewart, a small community just east of the B.C.-Alaska border, were told of the death shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Two men working as surveyors at a mineral camp near Sulphurets Creek, an isolated location about 50 km north of Stewart, were taking GPS co-ordinates when an avalanche swept them away, Mounties said Wednesday. One of the men was able to free himself from the avalanche and was not injured.

Avalanche technicians and search crews from a nearby mine helped to locate the body of the other surveyor, who had been swept off a 300-metre cliff by the avalanche.

The man hasn't been identified.

Police said foul play is not suspected, and have turned the investigation over to the B.C. Coroners Service.