Another major rockfall on the Stawamus Chief in Squamish
Posted September 20, 2021 8:36 am.
Last Updated September 21, 2021 8:17 am.
SQUAMISH (NEWS 1130) — Several residents woke up to a loud noise Monday morning coming from the Stawamus Chief near Squamish.
Jason Ross lives nearby and heard it all. Ross says it’s the fifth major rockfall on the iconic landmark in the past few months.
“Around 1:29 woke up to what sounded like what I would best describe as low flying jet aircraft,” he told Mountain FM Monday.
Another nearby resident says he was working about one kilometre away when the rocks came down. He was able to take a picture of the aftermath a few hours later.
A look at the Stawamus Chief Monday morning after a rockfall came down. Courtesy: Aaron Kristiansen
“Everything thing is quiet when ‘rumble, rumble, boom!’ The entire building shook. Everyone thought it was an earthquake,” Aaron Kristiansen told NEWS 1130.
According to the Ministry of Environment, the rockfall happened on the Zodiac Wall, inside the The North Walls, directly below the site of a major rockfall in 2015.
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“The RCMP and the local climbing community have been notified to advise their membership to use extra caution in the area. BC Parks is working with geotechnical engineers to fully investigate the series of rockfalls that have occurred since June,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry says existing closures at The Chief will continue throughout the winter, “as changing temperatures and weather events may trigger more debris to fall in areas where rock falls have occurred recently.”
In July, several popular climbing routes were closed off after chunks of large rocks came down in the provincial park
A statement from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy made the call to close them, due to the dangers associated with the unstable cliff face along the 600-metre high granite dome.
Geotechnical assessment was conducted as a result and local climbing groups suggested the high instability was due to the heatwave the province experienced in early summer.
