Khaled El Gamel says he was standing near Bow Glacier Falls with his friend when the rock wall crumbled late last week. El Gamel only barely survived. His friend did not. El Gamel was one of two hikers airlifted from the site in Banff National Park this past Thursday. Another was taken by ground ambulance. From a hospital bed in Calgary on Monday, El Gamel identified Hamza Benhilal as the second person who died in the rockslide. He says Benhilal is the reason he’s still alive. When the rockslide happened, El Gamel froze but then heard his friend yell for him to run. “He still tried to save me,” El Gamel said. “He did scream out loud, telling me to run, run, run, and that’s kind of what helped me get back to my senses and start running.” El Gamel still almost didn’t make it. He’s cut up and has a fractured pelvis and shoulder blade. “Definitely a life-threatening event,” he said. The rockslide killed Benhilal, 33, and a 70-year-old woman from Calgary. “I was lying there thinking that was the end of it,” El Gamel said. “I kept telling them, ‘My friend—where’s my friend?’ Nobody was able to locate him. Nobody was able to see him.” A search team found Benhilal’s body underneath the rubble the following day. El Gamel and Benhilal immigrated to Canada in 2022 to get their MBAs and were roommates in Surrey. They were vacationing in Calgary and Banff for a week and, on the suggestion of a hotel guest, decided to visit Bow Lake that day. El Gamel says they reached the falls and took photos up until seconds before part of the mountain came crashing down. “We were just enjoying the moment and the view, and we were having some snacks and then we just heard a loud noise,” he said. El Gamel says he is thankful to other hikers at the scene and rescue crews who helped him. He says Benhilal’s brother is flying in from Morocco to try and repatriate his body, but that it’s going to cost thousands of dollars. With files from Camilla Di Giuseppe
