Two people in their twenties are dead after they plunged more than 100 metres from a popular climbing area in Alberta Sunday afternoon.
The victims, a man and a woman, were climbing at the Heart Creek hiking area, east of Canmore, when they both suddenly fell.
Officials said they were climbing together, but it was unclear if they were tethered to one another. They were found about 10 metres apart on the ground.
It was not known late Sunday if anyone had witnessed the fall. However, someone did call 911 very quickly after the incident, which helped emergency responders get to the scene.
“At least we were able to access them quickly without it turning into a very lengthy search,” EMS spokesperson Stuart Brideaux told CTV News. “But unfortunately in this case it ended up being a recovery.”
RCMP spokesperson Jeff Jantz told reporters at the scene that between 100 and 300 people can be found in the area on any given weekend.
Peter Jull was hiking in the area when he saw rescue crews fly in.
“It’s just one of those sad tragedies of the outdoors,” Jull told reporters. “It’s a beautiful afternoon, everybody would love to be out here, and to have that kind of incident is really tragic.”
Officials are still investigating what led to the fall. The climbers appeared to have been hiking with full safety gear.
The climbers’ names have not been released.
With files from CTV Edmonton and The Canadian Press
