Mudslide closes part of Highway 40 in Kananaskis

Crews are clearing debris from Highway 40 near the Mount Lipsett trailhead after a mudslide Saturday morning.

A mudslide shut down part of Highway 40 in Kananaskis Country Saturday morning.

The province’s social media account, @511 Alberta, posted an update just before 9 a.m. Sunday advising of the issue.

“Hwy. 40 between Mount Lipsett Day-use Area and Mist Creek Day-use Area, south of Kananaskis Village is closed due to mudslide,” it said.

“Find an alternate route.”

They updated it at noon, saying it remains closed.

No other information was available.

An RCMP spokesperson said Volker crews were on hand and said they expect the highway to be impacted for approximately two days.

Samson Joseph said he went up for a hike in the area around 10 a.m., to try and make it back down before thunderstorms hit later in the afternoon.

Joseph said everything was fine when he went up, but by the time he returned, around 4 p.m., it was a different story.

“When we got down it ... there was a huge pile (of rocks and mud) on the road,” he said.

“It was kind of surprising to see that wasn’t there when we went up a few hours ago -- at least half a day ago -- but when I got closer to it, it kind of dawned upon me how severe that was, especially considering that was only about a few 100 metres to the trail head on, or where even the cars were parked.

“The bridge was all intact,” Joseph added, “and the river was flowing all fine when we went up, but now the whole bridge was taken down.

“There was a huge pile of mud, debris, (and) soil (on the road),” he said. There were plants, big trees that had kind of taken the bridge out.

" There was no traffic that could be passing that."

Joseph said he thought he was the last one to hike as he didn’t see anyone else on the trail.

This is a developing story that will be updated throughout the day.

With files from CTV’s Tyler Barrow