KANANASKIS – It was another busy weekend for rescuers in the Rocky Mountains.
Kananaskis Public Safety were called out to 20 rescues from Friday (July 31) through Monday (Aug. 3) of the long weekend.
“This weekend was, I would say, more typical in the distribution of the style of calls, but just more of them. For a long weekend in August having 20 calls in a weekend is still really busy,” said Jeremy Mackenzie, a public safety specialist and team leader for the Kananaskis region.
Rescue teams responded to calls ranging from injured mountain bikers, paddlers that needed help, scramblers, hikers, lost people and traumatic injuries.
“Interestingly there were a lot less trauma calls this weekend compared to the previous weekends,” he said.
Mackenzie said the high visitation numbers to the Bow Valley and Kananaskis, including popular areas near Canmore like Grassi Lakes and Ha Ling Peak, as well as along the Smith-Dorrien Highway in the Spray Valley, once again hindered crews access and ability to set up staging areas.
“The visitation is unbelievable and we had emergency vehicle access problems once again along Grassi Lakes and the Spray Road," he said. "Access to these sites was problematic on all three days, and on Sunday RCMP were turning away vehicles from the area.”
He stressed the importance for visitors to consider other hiking trails, or to have alternative routes if parking lots are “overflowing.”
Another trend Kananaskis Public Safety has seen throughout this summer is people going missing from hiking parties after the party splits up.
“We’ve seen cases where a group will start towards a specific objective than split up, and later in the day one of them doesn’t return or gets lost. That was something that happened several time this weekend. Staying together and operating as a team is very important,” he said.
With temperatures over the weekend hovering around the 30 C mark, Environment Canada issued a heat warning for the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country throughout most of the long weekend. As a result of the heat, Mackenzie said rescuers did respond to a few heat exhaustion calls, and urged people heading out into the mountains to be prepared.
“Doing your research, being knowledgeable about your route, knowing your plan and having the proper equipment is paramount. With the heat this weekend you needed a lot of water,” he said. “You should also leave your plan with a knowledgeable person who can activate our resources if you don’t return, and then we have a good idea of where you are.”
