Stawamus Chief rock slide raises large dust cloud
The District of Squamish says a geotechnical engineering assessment has been done and a search is under way after a rock slide on the Stawamus Chief this morning.
It has not yet released details of the engineer's early report. There have been no reports of damage or injuries.
Squamish resident Kirsten Andrews posted video of the slide in progress, complete with sound, to her Facebook page.
Andrews — a mother of two girls — told CBC News that she was sitting at her kitchen table having lunch when she heard the beginning of the slide.
"It started to sound like there was a bit of rock coming off the Chief, which happens periodically," she said. "This just got louder and louder and the house started to shake. I kept waiting for it to end and it just kept building to this huge crescendo."
She says she's never seen anything like the slide before.
"It felt like the whole side of the mountain was coming down, it was just intense."
Now Andrews says she's praying that no one was around when the slide happened, describing the area as popular with people who enjoy climbing boulders, walking and biking.
She lives approximately two kilometres from where the slide occurred and spoke to the CBC's Susan McNamee in detail about her experience.
A provincial emergency program pilot tweeted a picture of the slide site, with the hashtag #busyday
The slide happened just before noon in the North Walls area of the north peak, near a route called Northern Lights.
The Squamish Chief newspaper reported, "the piece of the Stawamus Chief that fell appears to be at least 30 feet wide."
Shortly after the incident, Squamish residents tweeted pictures of a dust cloud rising from the Chief.
Joel Spooner tweeted this picture of the dust cloud from a gravel road close to where the piece fell.
The District of Squamish says first responders remain on scene.
It says there is no impact to Highway 99. However, Mamquam Forest Service Road has been closed at Highway 99 and at Cherry Drive.
