Another save for the Comox Search and Rescue team and the military pilots and SAR techs at C-F-B Comox.
They were called out late yesterday afternoon when four skiers were hit by an avalanche in the back country outside the boundaries of the Mount Washington ski resort on Vancouver Island.
The four were in cellphone contact with police throughout and ground searchers reached them at 10 last night.
Captain Trevor Reid says a Cormorant helicopter and a Buffalo search aircraft arrived 90 minutes later.
He says they were fighting high winds, approximately 50 kilometres an hour, as well as some turbulence and downdrafts and visibility was also quite poor.
With the Buffalo illuminating the site with high-intensity flares, the chopper lowered two SAR techs 170 feet into chest deep snow
They then made their way to the ground crews who had stabalized an 18-year-old skier who had been swept over a 25-foot cliff.
Three hours later that skier was airlifted to safety while ground crews walked out the other three.
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