A disoriented 54-year-old hiker died Sept. 8 after falling off Parker Ridge, near the Columbia Icefield, in Banff National Park.
The Massachusetts man was hiking with his wife, who, once halfway up the trail, got too tired to go on and decided to sit and wait for her husband to complete the journey alone. When he didn鈥檛 return after 35 minutes, she decided to walk down to the car to see if he鈥檇 taken an alternate route.
鈥淪he went to the parking lot and then after about an hour or so she started becoming concerned,鈥� said Sgt. Jeff Campbell of the Lake Louise RCMP. (The Parker Ridge trail is only classified as a 2鈥�2.5 hour round trip.)
鈥淪o she found Parks Canada staff and alerted them about her missing husband and then Parks was able to form a search.鈥�
That search lasted until last light on Sept. 8 and resumed the following morning with two Parks Canada search dogs, a helicopter and 10 visitor safety specialists from Jasper, Banff and Lake Louise.
The man, whose family has requested his name not be released, was found at 10 a.m. Sept. 9.
鈥淗e appeared to have gotten disoriented,鈥� said Campbell. 鈥淗e moved off the main trail and he was about a kilometre south鈥攖hat鈥檚 if you鈥檙e thinking north and south of Highway 93 North, so south toward the Big Bend.
鈥淔rom up there you can see the whole highway, so it appears he thought he could get back to the highway, but he walked over a rocky cliff area and appeared to have lost his footing.
鈥淭his is what we suspect because he fell roughly 200 metres down a cliff face and didn鈥檛 survive.鈥�
Campbell said there is no sign of foul play and there鈥檚 no reason to suspect drugs or alcohol. Rather, he said, it was just a tragic end to what was 鈥渟upposed to be a short stop on the way to the Icefields.鈥�
鈥淭his just goes to say that you have to have your wits about you no matter what you鈥檙e doing in the backcountry鈥攋ust because it鈥檚 an easy hike doesn鈥檛 mean things can鈥檛 happen.鈥�
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
