Major Sea to Sky Rock Slide

Fortunately it appears that there have been no injuries in what is one of the most significant rock slides to hit the Sea to Sky Highway in more than 10 years. Tuesday evening around 11:20pm approximately 16,000 cubic metres of rock broke free of the cliff side and crashed on to a section of the highway and the neighbouring rail line.

A bus was travelling by the site as the rocks tumbled down. The bus driver heard and saw the rocks starting to come down and sped up as much as possible. The bus managed to escape without injury to its' passengers although the bus lost most of its windows and received punctures to the vehicles shell.

Initial reports claimed the highway would be shut until mid- morning on Wednesday but further investigation moved that estimation to a couple of days. The most recent estimation of the clean-up period is up to 5-days rendering the road completely shut right through the BC Day long weekend.

This will undoubtedly affect countless tourists in addition to the businesses that are supported by them and raises questions regarding contingency plans during the 2010 Whistler portion of the Olympic Games.

Fortunately during the 2010 Games the athletes will be housed in Whistler but if a slide a other major disaster occurs spectators will be largely out of luck. The vehicular alternative to the Sea to Sky highway is reportedly nearly an 8 hour detour. Planes do fly into Pemberton (30 minutes north of Whistler) and Boats can travel right up to Squamish.

Bottom line... stay near events you plan to spectate and keep your fingers crossed that the Achilles heel of the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Olympic bid does not come back to haunt them.

More from the Globe and Mail.

Sea to Sky Highway Updates or BC Highways.

Photo Credit : Rowan Palmer