Rescuers say a woman is lucky to be alive after she was caught in an avalanche in the North Shore mountains near Vancouver and completely buried upside down for nearly 20 minutes.
The avalanche happened Sunday afternoon on the south face of Pump Peak on Mount Seymour, less than 20 kilometres northeast of downtown Vancouver.
According to the North Shore Rescue (NSR) Facebook page, the woman was snowshoeing with a companion in the backcountry when the avalanche struck and buried them both.
Jim Loree with NSR says the couple, who are in their 30s, were able to get up the trail, but ran into
