Avalanche happened Tuesday mid-afternoon at remote heli-skiing lodge north of Stewart

One person has died and three are injured after an avalanche hit a group of heliskiers in northern British Columbia on Tuesday midafternoon.

A spokesman for Last Frontier Heliskiing told CBC in an email the casualty and injuries happened when five people were caught in the avalanche at the remote Bell 2 Lodge, around 150 kilometres north of Stewart, B.C.

The B.C. Coroners Service has confirmed it is inspecting the death.

B.C. Emergency Health Services said one patient was taken to hospital by air ambulance after it was reported of an avalanche at 3:37 p.m. Tuesday.

It has been a mainly bad year so far for avalanche death toll in B.C., with the death toll now at 13 since January.

The deceased include two backcountry skiers who died near Tatla Lake, B.C., two off-duty officers with the Nelson Police Department on a ski trip near Kaslo, an Alberta man snowmobiling south of Valemount, B.C., two brothers from Pennsylvania heliskiing in B.C.’s Interior and three German tourists heli-skiing outside of Invermere, B.C.

Avalanche fatalities in B.C

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Avalanche Canada has equated this season’s snowpack with conditions last seen in the winter of 2002-2003, when 25 people lost their lives in B.C.’s backcountry, making it one of the province’s most horrible years on record for avalanche fatality rate.