‘She was unstoppable’: Tenne Andersen identified as Nelson’s latest avalanche victim
Wendy Allen knew her daughter would be special before she was even born.
In 1997, Allen was in labor at home when a bird that looked like a Tennessee warbler flew into the room. Allen took it as an inspiration and named her daughter Tennessee Bird Andersen, or Tenne for short.
Andersen grew up on a rural estate south of Nelson and thrived in the great outdoors. Allen remembers teaching Andersen the names of plants and butterflies, and watching the child who carried chickens under her arm grow into a young woman inspired by outdoor recreation.
“She was a weekend warrior. She just wanted to be out there any minute,” says Allen. “She would travel all the way down to Monument Valley and want to climb there. She just fed on it, she just fed on nature.”
On February 11, Andersen and an unidentified male friend were killed by an avalanche south of Lake Tatla in the Potato Mountain Range in the Chilcotin region of British Columbia.
Nine people have died in avalanches this year, including Nelson Police Officers Det. Wade Tittemore and Const. Matthew Nolet.
Allen said the couple approached a cabin on snowmobiles. They stayed the night and then decided to go skiing the next day. According to Avalanche Canada, this triggered an avalanche on the eastern slope of the mountain.
Central Cariboo Search and Rescue, where Andersen was a volunteer, plus RCMP and an avalanche safety officer found their bodies two days later.
Central Cariboo SAR chief Rick White said in a statement that Andersen’s death was traumatic for his team. “The kind soul and bright light of this member will be greatly missed.”
After graduating from LV Rogers Senior Secondary in Nelson, Andersen earned a dual degree in psychology and environmental management from Simon Fraser University, where she graduated in 2022.
Allen said that Andersen was working a desk job in Vancouver when an opportunity arose to work as a parking attendant in the Williams Lake area. She bought a van, lived out of the vehicle on a horse farm and was excited to work in nature. On the weekends, she hiked, practiced photography (Andersen had a growing audience on Instagram), and explored the region.
A long, happy career as a park ranger, Allen said, seemed to be her daughter’s future.
“She wanted to go to the hotspots, she always wanted to climb. She just couldn’t be stopped. She loved being in nature. … Their job should be to protect nature, to protect animals, to protect wetlands, to protect all the things that have to happen so that we can preserve all these beautiful things.”
Avalanche Canada no longer lists the Tatla Lake area as a risk, but several areas around BC, including the Kootenays, remain classified as significant or high danger.
Allen doesn’t think a tour of the backcountry is worth the risk. She now wishes she had told her daughter that.
“For a girl like her, she had all the enthusiasm. If I could talk to her again, I would have said don’t go. Just hike in summer, not in winter.”
@tyler_harper | [email protected]
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