A massive rockslide in Squamish, B.C. brought debris crashing to the ground on a popular hiking and rock climbing area.
Remarkably, it appears that no one was injured when a 1,000 cubic metre piece of granite sheared off the side of Stawamus Chief Mountain Sunday afternoon. The sound of the slide could be heard as far away as Vancouver, 65 kilometres away.
Never heard anything like this before. A huge chunk of The Chief just came down in front of our place. That was completely terrifying if I'm honest.Update: RCMP are suing the estimated size of the rock that fell is 1000 cubic metres.
Posted by Kirsten Andrews on Sunday, April 19, 2015
The north walls of the mountain were closed to the public, as police and first responders assessed the damage.
Police said, so far they have no indication that anyone is missing or injured as a result of the rockslide.
In an update on Facebook Monday morning, Squamish officials said they do not anticipate the need to send a search and rescue team into the area.
Stawamus Chief Mountain is shown after a rock slide in Squamish, B.C., on Sunday, April 19, 2015, in this handout photo. (Mandy Jensen / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Four climbers who were on the mountain at the time of the slide were able to get down safely, police said.
Squamish Mayor Patricia Heintzman said these types of events can happen from time to time.
"It is a mountain, these types of things happen," she said. "Rock climbers know what they're getting into when they do this, and we just hope that everyone was out of the way and this didn't impact anybody."
Visitors to the recreational area were left in awe of the trail of wreckage left from the slide.
"It's amazing; it's huge," one eyewitness said.
Climber Ian Iammers said he feels lucky he and his friends weren’t hurt.
"That's why we're so shocked, we literally walked right under that," he said.
The aftermath of a rockslide on Stawamus Chief Mountain is seen in this still frame taken from video.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Tom Popyk
