The landslide happened early Tuesday morning (photo courtesy of Johnathan Clarkson and Nitehawk)

By Liam Verster

Landslide at Nitehawk

Landslide causes minimal damage to Nitehawk infrastructure, costs of repairs unknown

May 20, 2020 | 1:17 PM

Nitehawk Year-Round Adventure Park has a big mess on their hands, after a landslide occurred on the slope, effecting two of its ski runs.

The slide, which happened at around 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, appears to have started around lift tower 4 on the run ‘Temptation’, spread onto lower ‘Showoff’, and then crossed over the luge track.

Acting General Manager of Nitehawk Johnathan Clarkson says they have some salvage work to do with some of the lift equipment, but despite the significant size of the slide, it doesn’t appear to have caused much damage to the surrounding infrastructure.

“We had done some mitigation work with our operations crew here in the spring in potential anticipation that something may happen. So, we had actually de-tensioned the haul-rope, removed all the chair lift chairs, as well as all the tower assemblies in the area that was in question. So, luckily that work has certainly prevented any major damage to infrastructure.”

He adds they have inspected the lift towers that were hit by the slide, and they appear to be fine, and that the luge track hasn’t really been in use since 2006, and they already had tentative plans to remove it and re-purpose the area.

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The landslide doesn’t appear to have damaged the lift towers (photo courtesy of Johnathan Clarkson and Nitehawk)

Clarkson says he’s been in contact with geotechnical engineers, and expects them to be out on the site in the next week or so to determine slope stability and assess the scene. He says they won’t know the financial impact of the cleanup and repair work on the runs until those assessments are done.

He adds that they’ve seen some slumping on the hill in the past, as they are located in the valley near Wapiti River, but he’s never seen a landslide of this magnitude .

While they wait for work to begin on the slope, Clarkson says the management team is working to reassess their summer programming, and look at potentially moving them off site .

“Luckily now that we’re in partnership with the City of Grande Prairie on managing the Bear Paw Par 3 Golf Course at Bear Creek Park, there’s certainly opportunities to potentially move our bike programming to the bike park that’s at Bear Creek. That’s certainly something that we’re looking at, and we’re looking at options to keep Nitehawk moving forward with outdoor recreation in the region.”

He adds that they were already planning for challenges with enrolment in programs and camps under the COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines, and while this landslide will be create another obstacle, Clarkson’s certain they will overcome it in time to offer summer programming.

The landslide happened early Tuesday morning (photo courtesy of Johnathan Clarkson and Nitehawk)

Clarkson says since the slide happened, they’ve had lots of people and organizations reaching out offering supports and help in cleaning up the scene, but until the experts come out and assess the site, they won’t know what they can and should do to safely clean up and repair the runs.

In the meantime, he asks that the public stays away from the hill, as the slope may still be unstable.

“I know it’s tempting to come out and see things, but we definitely want people to stay away. It’s definitely not safe to be walking around the area, because we’re not sure, if we get a major rain here or something, if something else was to still move a little bit.”

He adds that there was no one on site when the slide happened, and no one was injured.