REVELSTOKE, British Columbia, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Police in western Canada are cautioning snowmobile users against performing a dangerous straight-up tactic that killed an Alberta man last weekend.

The practice is called "high-marking" and involves a competition as to who can leave the longest trail in the snow straight up a mountain face, the Canwest News Service reported Tuesday.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a group of snowmobilers were high-marking on Saturday in Revelstoke, British Columbia, when one of them triggered an avalanche that buried an Alberta man. The unidentified 35-year-old man was dug out but didn't respond to resuscitation and was declared dead, the report said.

Signs were posted at the base of the mountains warning that the avalanche risk was "considerable," the report said.

The Web site of the American Council of Snowmobile Associations calls high-marking "one of the most dangerous things you can do on a snowmobile," Canwest reported.

This winter, 13 people, including six snowmobilers, have been killed by avalanches in the Rockies, the report said.