The main hiking trail to the backside of the Stawamus Chief has re-opened after a closure necessitated by a significant rock fall on the trail earlier this week.
The trail, which was closed by a rock fall that occurred late Monday (June 18), damaging one of the staircases about 200 metres from the trailhead, re-opened Thursday (June 21), a B.C. Parks official said.
No one was hurt in the incident, which occurred a couple of minutes after four hikers had passed the spot, according to the hiking website www.clubtread.com. The situation prompted a visit by a geotechnical engineer and a team of rock scalers, who were brought in to bring down any loose rocks that remained on the slope from which the slab - estimated by one observer at between 15 and 20 tonnes - fell.
One of the two chunks of rock that lay on the ground after the incident was the size of a small car, John Tisdale, B.C. Parks area supervisor, told The Chief.
