Ronald Gregg, 55, and James Schmid, 42, were part of a group of six experienced skiers from Seattle who flew up by helicopter to a popular cabin in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park.
Gregg and Schmid and two others headed out for a day's skiing Monday. They were caught in the slide -- 239 metres wide and 229 metres long -- in Grizzly Bowl around noon.
The avalanche apparently was triggered when one of the skiers made a kick-turn.
The two deaths bring to 19 the number of people killed in avalanches in Canada this winter, 18 of the fatalities in B.C.
Schmid was an assistant attorney-general for the state of Washington and the father of two girls.
Ronald Gregg, who had a Phd in nuclear physics, fell in love with the outdoors and founded a company, Outdoor Research, supplying outdoor equipment.
The Seattle skiers had been staying at Slocan Chief cabin, where Michel Trudeau, the son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, stayed before he was killed in an avalanche in 1998.
There is an average of 13 avalanche deaths a year but "persistent instabilities" in the snowpack this year have contributed to the death toll, said Evan Manners of the Canadian Avalanche Association.
More:
Canada.com
Outdoor Research:
http://www.orgear.com/
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