Overview
- Columbia Valley Search and Rescue ran a seven-hour, 10-flight helicopter operation with ACMG guides, Alpine Club staff, an RCMP officer and Alpine Helicopters, and all visitors were taken out safely.
- Reconnaissance showed an upper tarn had cut a deep channel through glacier ice above the Kain Hut basin, releasing water that pushed creek levels dangerously high.
- BC Parks closed the park’s core area until further notice, including the Kain Hut Trail, Boulder Camp and Applebee Dome Camp, while staff evaluate conditions.
- The Conrad Kain Hut is not believed to be damaged, but the main access trail is heavily impacted and the Alpine Club of Canada is working with BC Parks on a potential alternate route.
- BC’s environment ministry said rainfall raised the lake until it overtopped an ice dam that then melted rapidly, consistent with glacial lake outburst flooding in a region with documented glacier retreat.