‘Krazy Canadian’ Daniel Davidoff, McBride Highlight Rash Of ‘Preventable’ Avalanche Deaths [Video]

“As far as I’m concerned, if you haven’t wrecked one sled, you’re just not trying hard enough,” 45-year-old ‘Krazy Canadian’ Daniel Davidoff of Castlegar, British Columbia, can be heard stating in a YouTube video, filmed in the years before his death earlier this week, as reported by Unofficial Networks.

Davidoff was reported to have been snowmobiling alone the backcountry near Castlegar on a trip that he did not return from. A search and rescue crew found the Krazy Canadian’s body near the College Creek Forestry Road on Tuesday, March 15. Authorities believe that the extreme snowmobiler’s death was the result of an avalanche.

Daniel Davidoff appeared to be known as the Krazy Canadian for good reason. CFJC Today, located in Kamloops, described Davidoff as an “icon of extreme snowmobiling in British Columbia” and that his “ridiculous hillclimbs” and “first ascents earned him a reputation as one of the top backcountry hillclimbers.”

Video of Davidoff shows a demonstrably fearless snowmobiler powering up seemingly vertical mountain faces, on most occasions successfully reaching the top. He can also be seen goofing for the camera, vigorously celebrating successful rides, as well as speaking seriously about accomplishing snowmobiling feats that no one else has accomplished before. The Krazy Canadian can also be seen wrecking snowmobiles in failed trail attempts.

Stories of snowmobilers, extreme and otherwise, losing their lives in avalanches in the western region of the North America are common. In January, five snowmobilers died in an avalanche on Mount Renshaw in an incident that was described as “preventable” by Karl Klassen with Avalanche Canada, as reported by the CBC.

Klassen described the McBride avalanche as being caused by having too many, about 16, people on too steep a slope with an unstable load of snow. Further, Klassen stated that snowmobilers who venture into avalanche territory need to take a more “cautious approach” and to undertake adequate “planning and preparation” in order to safely assess risks that will be taken on; even a small avalanche is said to offer “serious consequences.”

“I’d like to see everybody who goes into the mountains have an avalanche safety training course,” Klassen was quoted. “I’d like everyone who goes into the mountains to expose only one person on a slope at a time and not have multiple groups involved in the same location at the same time.”

Friends of the dead McBride snowmobilers stated that the incident would probably not stop them from snowmobiling in the mountains again, noting that the group did not venture to “extreme peaks” of the type that Krazy Canadian, Daniel Davidoff, was so passionate about.

Comments made by those who were in the McBride group seem to reflect a division within the snowmobiling community.

“But the risk-takers, they want to go there. As you advance, you want to push the limits,” Neil Petryshen was quoted by Global News, speculating on why some snowmobilers decide to take life-threatening chances with their machines.

January was reported to have witnessed the second-highest number of U.S. avalanche deaths in the last 20 years, with 11, according to the Guardian.

The RCMP and B.C. Coroners Service are reported to be continuing to investigate the circumstances around Davidoff’s death, said to be the 12th among British Columbian snowmobilers in the 2015-16 winter season.

The Krazy Canadian is the only person to be awarded the best snowmobile film performance Xtremey Award on two occasions. He also appeared in films produced by Extreme Team, Extreme Velocity, and Thunderstruck, as reported by Kamloops BC Now. As the British Columbia snowmobiling community “mourns the loss” of Daniel Davidoff, an “outpouring of support” was reported on snowmobiling websites and forums.

[Image via Thunderstruck Films/YouTube]