VANCOUVER — Friends and family from the close-knit community of Haines, Alaska, are in mourning after two young men died in an avalanche in northwestern B.C.’s Tatshenshini-Alsek Park.
Zane Durr and Matthew Green, both 21, were snowboarding with a 16-year-old friend when the avalanche hit Monday, said Haines Borough manager Debra Schnabel.
The teenager survived but the two men were killed, she said, adding that all three were from families with deep roots in Haines and were connected either by blood, marriage or other relationships.
“We have a heavy heart across the community,” she said. “It’s generational and very broad, the impact to the community.”
Durr and Green were roommates in Seattle, where one was attending a trade school and the other was also pursuing post-secondary education, she said. They had returned home to Haines for the holidays and were planning to return to Washington in the new year.
Schnabel said both families have been notified and the Durr family travelled to the accident site after learning the news while the Greens were in Haines. After the investigation is competed, the bodies will be returned to the Alaska town, she said.
A prayer vigil was held Tuesday at the Haines Presbyterian Church, which is staying open to allow mourners to visit and reflect, she added.
Durr’s girlfriend, Hannah Miller, thanked him for “blessing [her] life” in an emotional statement posted on Instagram. “I will never be able to repay you for the joy you brought me, the laughs we shared, and the love you gave and gave and gave,” she wrote. “I just wish I could tell you one more time how loved you are by me and every single one of your friends and family. So many people mourn the loss of you and Matthew. I love you both.”
A fundraiser to send Miller to Haines to be with Durr’s family has thousands of dollars. The fundraiser says Miller stayed behind while the two friends travelled to Alaska for the holidays because she had to work.
A statement from the Haines Volunteer Fire Department said it was notified Monday that the RCMP had received a signal from an emergency locator west of the Three Guardsmen Mountain in the Haines Pass area. It said Canadian authorities immediately co-ordinated a rescue operation, and emergency support and a helicopter were sent to the scene.
The B.C. coroner said it is investigating to determine how, where and by what means the men died.
