LAKE LOUISE – The search continues for a paddleboarder who drowned in Herbert Lake in Banff National Park over the Canada Day long weekend.
Searches from the air, along the shoreline, from boats and with an underwater drive team have been unsuccessful so far in locating the 26-year-old man from India, who fell off his paddleboard in the small mountain lake about 7:20 p.m. Sunday (June 30).
Search dogs, specially trained to detect scent originating from submerged drowning victims – something that has become more common in water searches over the past decade – are being brought in later in the week.
“He hasn’t been located yet,” said Sgt. Gerald Walker of Lake Louise RCMP, noting the man, who has been working in Lake Louise, wasn’t wearing a life jacket. “The unfortunate part is this was preventable. Life jackets save lives.”
RCMP, Lake Louise Emergency Services and Parks Canada all responded to the tragedy, which had been witnessed by a group of friends.
Rescuers with Parks Canada say the group of young people had been taking turns paddleboarding on the lake, which is a popular swimming hole about six kilometres north of Lake Louise along Highway 93 North.
Brian Webster, manager of visitor safety for Banff National Park, said one of the individuals in the group was observed falling off the paddleboard.
“It was fairly apparent he was either a non-swimmer or a poor swimmer, because he was struggling to get back on the paddleboard,” he said. “He wasn’t successful, and was observed disappearing under the water.”
As soon as the emergency call came in, Parks Canada used a helicopter already in the area for a medical evacuation at Bow Hut, to do an aerial search. Before darkness set in, boats were on the water and rescuers walked the shoreline to search for the missing man.
On Monday, a private dive team was hired to continue the search, and the next day, Parks’ search and rescue team experimented with an underwater drone and camera, but with difficult search conditions due to poor visibility on the bottom, the body wasn’t found.
“We’re anticipating he’s on the bottom of the lake and it’s a difficult search area,” Webster said.
“There’s a lot of sediment on the floor of the lake. Lots of dirt and sediment and it’s oozy.”
While the lake is relatively shallow, there are two deep holes about 12 metres deep – and he fell off his paddleboard in one of those areas.
There are plans to bring in a specialized dog team, which is part of a volunteer organization in Calgary, on Friday (July 5). Once the dog finds a drowning victim, they can indicate to their handler with a bark or by pawing at the water.
“These dogs are actually trained for circumstances like this. The dogs are on the water in boats and they try to identify an area where the scent is strongest,” Webster said.
“In conjunction with the dogs, they have specialised cameras that, once they get a strong indication, they can lower these cameras into the water and look around.”
If the body is not found, the hope is the dogs will have least narrowed down the search area.
“Our plan is to get a more focused search area as a result of these dogs doing their jobs and to do another mission with the underwater team,” Webster said.
Parks Canada wants to stress the importance of wearing a life jacket or PFD (personal floatation device).
“In this case, if the individual was wearing a life jacket he wouldn’t have died,” Webster said.
Lakes in the mountain parks are also extremely cold.
“A big different in recreating on lake a warm lake in the Okanagan and a mountain lake that has frigid, glacier-fed water, even if you are a swimmer, the coldness of the water can shock your system.”
The man’s next of kin have been notified, but his identity is not being released at this time.
The area has been closed off to the public while the search continues.
