It should not be up to society to curb people's risk-taking, he said.
"It is tragic for the individual and their family that people's natural and praiseworthy appetite to push the envelope can lead to something like this. But the message is not to avoid risk, but to assess it sensibly.
"They will do it because in many instances they will get away with it. In some instances they won't. We've done all we can do to warn people of the dangers. Unfortunately, we end up being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff."
Everyone using the mountains knew the snow base was "twitchy" and "extremely dangerous".
People would continue to take risks despite warnings, he said.
The Mountain Safety Council has for several weeks issued back country avalanche warnings.
One on Friday warned skiers and snowboarders at Queenstown and Wanaka skifields to stay within boundaries because of high avalanche risk.
Yesterday's tragedy followed a large avalanche in the Ragged Range, near Mt Hutt, on July 24 that killed an Australian heliskier and buried two others, later rescued by guides.
That came a day after two ski guides at the Remarkables Ski Area, near Queenstown, were taken for a wild ride down the mountain by an avalanche after they set off control explosives.
A snowboarder triggered a big avalanche about noon on July 25 near the Remarkables skifield, in Queenstown.
