Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Jan 21/02) - Two former South Slave residents died one day apart in separate avalanches.

Former Wood Buffalo Park warden Mike Wynnm, 37, died on the job from avalanche injuries Jan. 13, and nurse Harvey Rice, 45, was killed while snowmobiling in B.C.'s Purcell Mountains.

Wynn was known in the Fort Smith and Fort Simpson areas. He was a warden at Wood Buffalo Park between 1989 and 1991, and had also worked at Nahanni National Park.

He was buried with two other Jasper National Park wardens who were checking avalanche conditions near the Columbia Icefield. The others survived but Wynn had been buried in 1.5 metres of snow for about 25 minutes.

Rice, and his wife, also a nurse, had just left their jobs in Hay River to work in Cranbrook, B.C. Rice had spent many years working for med-flight services in Yellowknife.

Rice was snowmobiling with six others in a remote area high up and 44 kilometres southwest of Invermere, B.C. when the avalanche struck.

Friends and family gathered on Friday for Rice's funeral in Fort Saskatchewan.