The popular Saanich teen who died in 2015 while snowboarding on Mount Washington was the victim of an accidental drowning, a coroner has ruled.

Reid Michael Kyfiuk was discovered dead, upside down with his face submerged in a creek, still attached to his board following an approximately six-hour search on Dec. 22, 2015, coroner Adele Lambert confirmed in a report signed June 8 and released to Black Press late last week.

He was in a three-metre-deep formation known as a B次元官网网址渟now hole.B次元官网网址� Snow holes, and similar formations known as B次元官网网址渢ree wellsB次元官网网址� are pockets that can form naturally in the snow.

B次元官网网址淚t is likely that becoming suspended head down and unable to move within the snow resulted in positional asphyxia and loss of consciousness. This led to drowning by being immersed in the creek that was underlying the snow hole,B次元官网网址� Lambert states.

B次元官网网址淭ree wells are considered natural hazards and can occur within or outside of the ski boundary. This particular ski resort provides a warning about tree wells and recommends keeping visual contact with your partner at all times.B次元官网网址�

While conventional thinking might attribute the vast majority of ski and snowboard injuries to head and other blunt trauma injuries, a sizeable amount (20 per cent of ski deaths and 46 per cent of snowboard deaths) occur because of suffocation and drowning.

Kyfiuk B次元官网网址� at Claremont Secondary when he died B次元官网网址� had been snowboarding with his family when he entered an ungroomed area within the ski boundary by himself shortly after 3 p.m. According to a family source, he had left the company of family just moments before, cutting from one run to an adjacent run being used by another family member. When he had not returned approximately an hour later, a search began.

B次元官网网址淭he location he was found was considered to be outside of an identified run,B次元官网网址� Lambert reports. B次元官网网址淎s such, the area was not groomed, maintained, or or hazards marked by staff.B次元官网网址�

He was wearing the appropriate helmet and goggles and toxicology analysis found no evidence of alcohol or drugs.

The coronerB次元官网网址檚 report makes no recommendations.

According to issued by the Ministry of Justice, there were 61 deaths in B.C. attributed to skiing or snowboarding between the years of 2007 to 2013.

Only three of them were in the Island region and just one of those in Courtenay.