Two people are dead after a rockfall struck several hikers in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies.
One has been identified by the University of Alberta as retired professor Jutta Hinrichs, who was found on Thursday. The second was recovered on Friday, according to Parks Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Another three people were injured and treated at a hospital, a spokesman for Parks Canada said. Officials believe everyone else in the area is accounted for and have called off rescue efforts.
The Bow Glacier Falls hiking trail is six miles (9 km) long and runs along Bow Lake. It is classified as a moderate hiking challenge.
The rockfall happened on Thursday afternoon north of Lake Louise, a tourist town 124 miles (200 km) northwest of Calgary, Alberta.
In a statement, the University of Alberta said Henrichs was a “dedicated leader and educator” who worked in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine’s Department of Occupational Therapy.
“As an educator, Jutta nurtured many students, preceptors and clinicians to flourish and grow. That her work continues to enrich the tapestry of occupational therapy in Alberta is her legacy,” the statement continued.
Corporal Gina Slaney with RCMP said that information about the second victim will be released after their family is notified.
Videos of the incident shared online show a large rock falling down a mountainside and large clouds of dust rising up.
Francois Masse, the Parks Canada Superintendent of the Lake Louise, Yoho, and Kootenay Field Unit, said the rockfall was an “extremely rare event” that was “neither predictable nor preventable”.
Rockfalls are fairly common in the Rockies, he said, but “what was exceptional was the size of the slab that detached” from the mountain.
The trail to Bow Glacier Falls has been closed for the foreseeable future, he added.
Niclas Brundell witnessed the incident as he was hiking in the area with his wife.
“We heard this like ‘chunk’ noise and the whole roof of the wall came loose,” he told CBC News. “And we just started sprinting down. I was yelling at my wife, ‘Go, go, go! We need to run as fast as we can.
“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 big. It was, like, the full mountainside.”
Ron Hallman, president and CEO of Parks Canada, expressed heartbreak over the incident. “My thoughts are with the families and friends of those who are affected,” he said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also offered his condolences.
“I want to address the tragedy at Bow Glacier Falls, and offer my condolences to the loved ones of those who have lost their lives in this tragic accident. And wish a full recovery to all those injured,” he told reporters in Ottawa during a news conference on Friday.
