Canada’s most popular national park turned deadly Thursday, when a sudden rockfall rained boulders and rubble down on visiting hikers.
The incident occurred at about 1 pm Thursday, when Parks Canada received a report of a rockfall near Bow Glacier Falls in Banff National Park. Canadian officials confirmed that one person was immediately found dead at the scene. By Friday morning, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed another body was recovered by rescue crews, Global News Canada reported.
Two more victims of the rockfall were evacuated by STARS Air Ambulance, and another by ground ambulance, according to Parks Canada. The injured visitors were all in stable condition, Jasper Local reported.
“We are all heartbroken by the recent tragedy at Bow Glacier Falls in Banff National Park,” said Ron Hallman, the president of Parks Canada.
At least 20 people were believed to be in the area at the time of the rockfall, according to multiple videos and personal accounts posted to social media on Friday. Video of the event shows a massive wall of rock crashing down from Bow Glacier Falls. Many onlookers ran for their lives as an enormous dust cloud engulfed nearby hikers.
‘Devastation’ at Banff National Park
Videos and photos of the incident quickly took over social media feeds on Friday, as tourists visiting the park for peace and quiet suddenly found themselves bearing witness to the fatal rockslide.
Kamala Dixon, whose Facebook profile lists her as a digital creator, has many posts of wildlife and landscapes from across Canada. She happened to be at Bow Glacier Falls on Thursday when the rockfall occurred. She posted several jaw-dropping videos and images from the event that quickly went viral online. Her videos also ended up in news feeds like the one above.
“Not sure if I’m the luckiest or unluckiest,” Dixon wrote. “As I turned right…I heard a sound like I’ve never heard before. I swing my phone around to capture not realizing what exactly I was seeing, then I threw my phone and deployed my Garmin. This is an EASY hike, that people take kids and elderly to, no one could have ever expected such devastation.”
While Banff National Park remains open, Bow Lake is now closed to all visitors.
Bow Glacier Falls is a popular tourist hike a half-hour north of Lake Louise, Alberta. The 120-meter waterfall drains an emerald lake high above that collects water from the melting Bow Glacier. Though the lake is called Iceberg Lake, it no longer has icebergs, as the glacier has retreated dramatically.
The deadliest landslide in Canadian history, called the Frank Slide, also happened in Alberta. In 1903, 110 million tonnes of Turtle Mountain broke away and fell on the nearby mining town of Frank, killing at least 70 people.
Iceberg Lake and the Bow Glacier, source of the waterfall that begins at the bottom right. Photo: Alexandra Kobalenko
The original version of this article first appeared in GearJunkie.
