Kananaskis Country

K-Country rescuers preparing for busy August long weekend; advise outdoor enthusiasts to be prepared and play safe

A female scrambler was airlifted to Foothill Medical Center on Tuesday (July 28) afternoon after falling 100-feet near the Mount Lawrence Grassi summit

“I think the big thing is to do your research before you go, and you know what type of trail you’re venturing on to, and know the activity,” Kananaskis Public Safety Sector specialist, Jeff MacPherson, on staying safe in the backcountry. “We’ve seen a few instances of solo people who go by themselves. Go with a partner, stay with your group, and have a plan."

“We’ve been kind of maxed for resources for a while now, and now we add this new level of visitation in, and we’re clearly not staffed to manage that in any sort of long-term way.”

UPDATED: Alberta Parks issued a closure for the Yamnuska day use area, trails and climbing area Sunday morning (July 12) "due to the significant increase in visitation and dramatic spike in rescues, the area is closed to help prevent the overwhelming of rescue services in Kananaskis."

The Calgary couple left for Turbine Canyon Monday (July 6) to camp overnight and were found uninjured Wednesday (July 8) morning in Height of the Rockies Provincial Park in B.C.

“The good news is they both had life jackets on, which I think saved them because one of them got pinned under the log for – his guess was 15 seconds – before he managed to pull himself to the surface.”

“It was a fairly close call in terms of swimming in water above the log jam … it was definitely a near miss,” said Kananaskis Country Public Safety specialist Mike Koppang, noting the rescued pair of kayakers were thankfully wearing personal floatation devices.

“Based on the information we had, we elected to fly out to the area, and we did locate the individual deceased at the bottom of the cliff. She succumbed to injuries as a result of a significant fall.”

"From the initial stages of the investigation police believe that the victim got stuck in a tree during his descent and then fell some distance."