60 people helicoptered out of provincial park after sudden glacier flooding
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It began as a serene summer morning in Bugaboo Provincial Park, nestled deep in British Columbia’s East Kootenay region. Hikers and climbers—some as young as ten, others nearing seventy—had gathered near the iconic Conrad Kain Hut, preparing for a day of alpine adventure. However nature had other plans.
At 8 a.m. on August 17, 2025, Columbia Valley Search and Rescue received a call from the Alpine Club of Canada: creek levels near the hut were dangerously high. What rescuers found was far more alarming—a tarn, a mountain lake perched beneath the Bugaboo and Crescent Spires, had breached its glacial barrier. It carved a new channel through the ice, sending torrents of muddy, fast-moving water surging beneath trail bridges and across paths. Over 60 people were suddenly stranded.
Jordy Shepherd, a seasoned SAR team member, described the scene as “a ticking clock.
”If the logging road had washed out, even the vehicles parked at the trailhead would have been trapped. Fortunately, the road held. Rescuers sprang into action, setting up a helicopter staging area and executing ten flights over seven hours to airlift every stranded hiker to safety.
Much of Bugaboo’s core area remains closed as B.C. Parks investigates the damage.
Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons License
Bugaboo Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada..
Taken on August 1, 2014