Multiple people are feared dead after a horrific rockslide swept up numerous hikers who had been enjoying Canada’s Banff National Park.
The rockfall, north of Lake Louise, was triggered near Bow Glacier Falls at around 1:30pm on Thursday and ‘multiple hikers’ were caught in it, said the Lake Louise Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
A joint statement by RCMP and Parks Canada confirmed one person died at the scene, and three others were evacuated to the hospital. Their conditions have not been shared at this time.
The Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS) dispatched two helicopters and transported each patient one by one to Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary.
Video posted online of the incident showed a large shelf of stone rocketing down a mountainside, which then caused a huge cloud of gray dust to rise into the air.
After scouring for survivors by air and ground all throughout Thursday, rescuers in Alberta are set to resume their search on Friday morning for anyone else who may have been caught in the rockfall.
Pictured: A rockslide near Bow Glacier Falls in Banff National Park on Thursday afternoon kicked up a mountain of dust and debris
Pictured: The aftermath of the deadly rockslide. One person was confirmed dead and three other were taken to hospitals
Pictured: A helicopter is seen close to the scene of the rockslide on Thursday looking for survivors. Search efforts will continue into Friday
Bow Lake, about 22 miles away from Lake Louise on the Icefields Parkway, has been closed by authorities. A no-fly zone has also been established in the area.
Bow Glacier Falls, near where the rockslide occurred, is less than two miles southwest of Bow Lake and is accessible via a hiking trail.
Banff National Park and the Icefields Parkway remain open to the public, but drivers have been told to expect intermittent traffic near Bow Lake where rescue efforts are still being mounted.
‘Parks Canada and RCMP are deeply saddened by this tragic incident. Our hearts go out to the friends and families of all involved. Updates will be provided as more information comes available,’ the two agencies said in their joint statement.
Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith, shared a statement as well, offering her condolences to the families affected by this tragic natural disaster.
‘I am deeply saddened to learn of the tragic event at Bow Glacier Falls, north of Banff, today,’ she posted on X. ‘We are thinking of all those involved and wishing for their safety as we await further details.’
‘On behalf of Alberta’s government, I also want to offer my most sincere gratitude to the emergency crews including search and rescue teams, and @STARSambulance for responding quickly,’ she added.
Niclas Brundell told CBC News he was hiking in the area with his wife when the rockfall happened.
Pictured: The exact areas of Banff National Park that are now closed to the public
He said they got up to an area that was to the right of the falls where several other groups were present, taking photos and exploring. He said there may have been about 15 to 20 people around.
Brundell and his wife noticed several small rocks falling. Alarmed, they began to move away from the area.
‘Then we heard this like “chunk” noise and the whole roof of the wall came loose,’ he said, talking about a cliff of rock hanging over the falls.
‘And we just started sprinting down. I was yelling at my wife, “Go, go, go! We need to run as fast as we can,”‘ Brundell recalled.
‘We just kept sprinting and I couldn’t see the people behind us anymore because they were all in that cloud of rock. And I saw rocks coming tumbling out of that. So it was, it was big. It was, like, the full mountainside,’ he said.
He estimated that the rockfall was 160 feet wide and 30 feet deep.
Another hiker in the area, Kamala Dixon, captured dramatic footage of the rockslide happening in real time and later posted it to social media.
Dixon described a gut feeling she had that ‘something wasn’t right,’ pointing to the fact that the flow from the waterfalls was going faster than normal.
‘Please be aware the Falls were waaay bigger than normal and flowing very fast..I felt something wasn’t right and when I heard the crack I turned around expecting to see a few rocks, instead total devastation,’ she wrote.
