A North Vancouver woman was among the dead in an ice-climbing fall near Pemberton on Sunday.
The B.C. Coroners Service confirmed the identities of the three deceased mountaineers Tuesday, including Elena Cernicka, 35.
Cernicka, along with Neil Charles Mackenzie, 31, and Stephanie Grothe, 30, were part of a larger group who travelled to Joffre Lakes Provincial Park on Jan. 11 to spend the night in a backcountry cabin.
When Cernicka, Mackenzie and Grothe didn’t return to the cabin, their colleagues went out looking, finding one body near the bottom of a gully. The group contacted Whistler RCMP, who called in Pemberton Search and Rescue. Searchers found the remaining bodies the next morning, approximately 600 metres below the main couloir at Joffre Peak.
Cernicka was a patient safety learning system co-ordinator with Providence Health Care.
“Our deepest sympathies and our thoughts are with the family at this time. Obviously, staff that knew her are saddened by this news,” said Dave Lefebvre, Providence Health Care spokesman.
