A small landslide crashed down Copper Mountain the evening of April 22.
Rocks slid down the west face of the mountain, near JL’s Excavating pit and the Terrace Rod and Gun Club in Thornhill. The Terrace Standard received multiple reports from nearby residents who heard a loud rumbling sound and believed it to be from a landslide, but the cause was not immediately identified as the slide happened at night.
“At first I thought it was a jet flying over, but it was different, louder,” wrote Peter Mehs in a message via The Terrace Standard website, adding he checked his watch and it read 11:15 p.m. “It went on for quite a while, over a minute, sounded pretty big.”
“I was praying it wasn’t coming our way, thankfully it didn’t,” wrote Nancy Pratt Lamming in a Facebook message. “Hoping it wasn’t as bad as it sounded and that it travelled away from populated areas.”
The B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said it sent an engineer out to Copper Mountain after being contacted by The Terrace Standard April 23. A ministry spokesperson said the slide caused minimal damage.
“The slide was deemed to be relatively small and doesn’t pose any risk to public safety, infrastructure or homes,” the spokesperson said in a statement April 27.
Andrew Johnstone, a local rock climber, went out and photographed the landslide after he saw an initial picture of it on Facebook.
“I definitely know [that area] does like to shed some rock every now and again, especially in spring,” he said, noting the slide was close to some areas popular with rock climbers. “I went out and scoped it out further and, sure enough, it was a pretty good slide.”
jake.wray@terracestandard.com
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