News / Articles

Rescuers Warn of Changing Conditions in Kananaskis
Greg Colgan
Rocky Mountain Outlook

KANANASKIS COUNTRY – As conditions continue to shift from winter to spring, mountain rescue specialists are advising people visiting Kananaskis Country to plan ahead.

The more than 4,000 square kilometers of public land can feature wintery conditions well into the summer months, particularly at higher elevations.

“There’s certainly places we’re still seeing a lot of avalanche activity,” said Jeremy Mackenzie, a mountain rescue specialist with Kananaskis Mountain Rescue (KMR). “There’s a lot of places where the travel is quite difficult with deep snow or where you can lose the trail because of the snow. It can often cause problems this time of year.”

Mackenzie said the conditions vary from the valley bottom in places such as Canmore, where it can be in the mid-20s Celsius, but still have large amounts of snow, with the west side of Highway 742 – also known as Smith Dorrien Highway – still largely covered in snow.

He noted areas closer to Calgary such as the Elbow River Valley, which has lower elevation, are likely to be drier and get less snow in the winter compared to places such as Peter Lougheed or Spray Valley provincial parks.

Following the death of a hiker on Mount Baldy in May, KMR was called along with Alpine helicopters and conservation officers.

RCMP said a 42-year-old Cochrane man was found May 23 after he didn’t arrive after coming back from the hike.

“A coordinated search was launched involving ground crews, aerial support, and local emergency services. The visitor was found deceased later that day. The incident has been transferred to the RCMP,” said Victoria Person, communications director for the Ministry of Forestry and Parks, shortly after the fatality.

Mackenzie said about 10 rescuers responded as well as Alpine for an air and ground search.

“We got alerted of this overdue person and immediately sent crews and located him,” he said. “We don’t know why he fell and there doesn’t seem to be any indication of what the cause was. There’s not a lot to comment on about it.”

Kananaskis Country was established under then-Premier Peter Lougheed in 1978 and has several provincial parks, provincial recreation areas, wildland provincial parks and Crown land.

A Kananaskis search and rescue service was established in 1979, modelled after Parks Canada’s mountain safety program.

KMR provides backcountry search and rescue services throughout Kananaskis in addition to several other tasks.

Recent years have seen visitation significantly jump from about 3.5 million people annually before the COVID-19 pandemic and reach a high of 5.4 million people in 2020 and more than five million in 2021. In 2024, there were about five million visitors, said Ministry of Forestry and Parks press secretary Neil Singh. He added they don't have specific visitation numbers so far for 2025, but "based on historical patterns from past years" it would be about 1.5 million.

In 2011, it was estimated more than 1.1 million people visited Kananaskis.

With the G7 Summit coming June 15-17 at Kananaskis Village, it will see large parts along Highway 40 and Highway 742 shut down to visitation from June 10-18. 

Mackenzie said anecdotally, “it seems like it’s a busier spring overall.”

From 2012-22, the 10-year average of calls for KMR was between 360-380. When visitation was at its highest in 2020 and 2021, there were about 450 calls each year. Singh said KMR responded to 346 last year and 80 as of Tuesday (June 3).

The bulk of the calls are traditionally between May to end of September.

In 2021, there were 10 fatalities in Kananaskis and 16 in 2022, with most being drowning.

There were at least 12 in 2023, including a plane crash that killed six people.