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More Than 60 Airlifted From Bugaboo Provincial Park After Glacial Lake Flood

Officials closed the core area pending assessments of damaged access routes and lingering hazards.

Rescuers took this image of flooding in Bugaboo Provincial Park on Sunday, when it took them seven hours to rescue over 60 people from the park in the East Kootenay.
Columbia Valley Search and Rescue members responding to a call.
An aerial view of the Kain Hut basin, Bugaboos, where a flash flood wiped out a section of the trail-1

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.