Avalanche survivor Jeff Adams fought back tears as he explained the "gut-wrenching" decision he and two friends made to leave behind eight friends buried alive under a blanket of snow in a B.C. backcountry area last Sunday.

Adams, 29, was one of three men to survive a series of weekend avalanches in a backcountry area between Fernie and Sparwood, B.C.

Most of his friends, all of whom were experienced snowmobilers, avoided being swept under the front of an initial avalanche that struck while the group worked to free a snowmobile that had become stuck in the snow.

"Everybody was down at the bottom, all scattering and running," Adams said.

All but one of the men had been freed from that avalanche, when the group quickly located its only missing member and started to dig him out of the snow.

That's when the group was overcome by a second avalanche, which "buried all 11 of us," Adams told reporters at a press conference in Sparwood on Wednesday.

"I managed to float almost to the surface. When I opened my eyes I could see daylight," he said, describing his escape from the second avalanche.

"I was digging. I managed to get my mouth free. I was already choking. I took a few breaths."

Adams managed to get himself out and yelled out to check on whether any of his friends had survived.

He heard his friend Jeremy Rusnak and spent about 15 minutes digging him out.

The two survivors then attempted to dig out their friend James Drake, but had to break off their rescue efforts when more snow came crashing down.

"As we were running away from James, he was saying: 'Don't leave me here. Don't leave me here,'" Adams said.

In the end, Adams and Rusnak were able to get Drake out.

"We kept saying: 'We're sorry.'"

Adams said it was an "unexplainable" moment.

"After being buried twice, you hear it coming," he said.

"There's two of us out and alive for sure. It's one of those quick decisions you've got to make. You stay, it hits all three of us again. You go, at least there's two to dig him out."

A 'gut-wrenching' decision

The survivors then looked to save their remaining friends. They could detect a signal from only one other snowmobiler, but decided it "was too deep with no equipment to help him."

When they realized it was unsafe to stay where they were, Adams said he and his fellow survivors then made "the gut-wrenching decision to leave our eight friends and start walking off the mountain."

While they were walking away, "the whole centre of the mountain" came down "burying everything again," he said.

The three men were eventually rescued by a helicopter that had been alerted by a call from the distress beacon of one of the group members.

Since returning home, Adams said he has been surrounded by his family and friends.

"Just me and all my friends, family. Sticking together. Day by day," he said.

The tragic search

The body of the final victim of the deadly snow slides -- 28-year-old Daniel Bjarnason -- was found Tuesday with Adams' help, who managed to visit the scene and assist search technicians.

"It brought a sense of closure when they found him," Adams said.

"It was very tough to look at the scene, to see how deep some of my friends were buried, to realize how close they were to the spot where I was."

Adams estimated that Bjarnason had died only six feet away from the spot where he had escaped.

The seven other victims, found the day before, have been identified as: Bjarnason, 28; Leonard Stier, 40 and his son Michael Stier, 20; Warren Rothel, 33; Thomas Talarico, 32; Kane Rusnak; 30, Kurt Kabel, 28; and Blaine Wilson, 26.

All are from the small coal-mining town of Sparwood.

Officials say the eight men were well-trained when they drove their snowmobiles into the rugged territory about 300 kilometres southwest of Calgary, between the resort town of Fernie and Sparwood.

Randy Roberts, Bjarnason's father-in-law, told reporters Tuesday that the snowmobilers were all "best of friends" who were "just like a big group of kids that want to play."

He said all of the men had the proper equipment with them -- including shovels, probes and transmitters.

"You can never predict it," Roberts said, wiping away tears.

Adams said the men knew there were risks involved with what they were doing, but they took those risks into account when deciding their route -- they decided to avoid "climbing" the sides of the backcountry area, chossing to instead stick to the ground they thought was safe.

Mourners gather in Sparwood

On Tuesday night, hundreds of residents of Sparwood, B.C. attended two memorial services for the men who were killed on Sunday.

"This community is still very much in the throes of grief," CTV's Rob Brown told Canada AM on Wednesday from Sparwood.

"The service I took in was packed at St. Michael's church in Sparwood, standing room only. The other service I understand was much the same and now a funeral is being planned, a public funeral, for as early as Sunday at the local rink so that as many as thousands of people might attend."

At the ceremony at St. Michael's, candles were lit in memory of each victim, and placed in the snow outside the building. Father Harry Clarke called the event "a dark night of the soul."

Victim remembered

Brett Ray, the employer of avalanche victim Warren Rothel told Canada AM the community is trying to move forward.

"Sparwood is pulling together pretty nicely but it's quite a tragedy and it's pretty hard to deal with it," Ray said.

He said Rothel worked for him as a welder, and was hard-working, fun-loving and dependable.

"Warren was my employee. He was one of my lead hands or foremen at times. He was energetic, ambitious, always busy doing something and he was a good man you could count on."

With files from The Canadian Press