It was quite the year in Squamish. The editorial team at The Chief has compiled a list of the Top 10 newsmaking events of the year.
The start of our list is a sad fact — there were many occasions when death touched the Squamish community this year.
Perhaps the most high-profile of these deadly incidents was the Shannon Falls tragedy, which drew sympathy from across the nation.
It was a warm July 3, when three YouTube vloggers Ryker Gamble, Alexey Lyakh and Megan ‘Mindy’ Scraper fell about 30 metres from one of the uppermost pools in Shannon Falls.
Gamble and Lyakh were particularly well known. Along with friend Parker Heuser, they produced a popular YouTube channel called High on Life, which documents travel adventures.
The High on Life vloggers previously made international news in 2016 after they were charged with damaging sensitive habitat in Yellowstone Park.
In the Shannon Falls case, officials say that the trio slipped and was dragged into the current of one of the pools before they plummeted over the ledge.
First responders from all over the corridor were on the scene. Divers were mobilized to recover the bodies.
The incident drew the attention of the country, as national outlets broadcasted each new development.
Marc-Andre Leclerc
Squamish lost one of its shining stars in the climbing community.
After going missing during an expedition in Alaska, rescue teams were scrambled to try and find Leclerc and his climbing partner George “Ryan” Johnson.
They summited the Mendenhall Towers on March 4, and were last in touch with their friends just after that accomplishment.
The pair planned to ski back to Juneau via the West Mendenhall Glacier Trail, but a snowstorm blanketed the area.
Alaska State Troopers were alerted of the climbers’ late return on March 7. Seven days later, Leclerc’s family announced that both men were presumed dead.
Climbers from around the globe expressed their sympathies.
Among them was Alex Honnold, who has become arguably the most popular climber in the world thanks to his ropeless ascent of El Capitan, which was documented in the film Free Solo.
“Marc was a huge inspiration to me personally despite being such a young alpinist — he embodied the perfect blend of talent, psyche, and humility. A true climber’s climber who had a deep love of adventuring in the mountains,” Honnold wrote in an Instagram post.
In November, authorities announced they would be suspending the search for the climbers’ remains.
Highway deaths
A spate of deaths on the highway made for a rough start to 2018 in Squamish.
A collision on the Sea to Sky killed two Squamish men and injured five other locals near Alice Lake on Jan. 2. Locals responded by petitioning the province to add concrete barriers along that area.
Over the course of weeks, more lives would be claimed.
In early February, a tractor-trailer fatally struck a 20-year-old Squamish man as he walked near Loggers Lane and Finch Drive.
Later that month, an international student who was riding as a passenger was killed in a multi-vehicle accident near the Big Orange Bridge.
Another collision on the highway would spark an investigation from the police watchdog agency of B.C. and capture the attention of media throughout the province and in Ireland.
In March, a 29-year-old Irish man who’d started to make a life for himself in Squamish was hit by an unmarked police vehicle at the intersection of Highway 99 and Garibaldi Way.
The Independent Investigations Office sent its agents to review the circumstances of the accident. They are called upon whenever an interaction with police and civilians results in serious harm or death.
The office put out a call for witnesses. The agency’s findings on the incident have yet to be made public.
Meanwhile, Irish media identified the victim as Brendan Keogh, a man who at the time of the accident, had just celebrated his first year in Canada. He died in August from his injuries.
Locally, Keogh was known around town as one of the friendly faces at Howe Sound Brewing.
Later this year, another highway death would also strike a chord in town.
Squamish local Bekah Mann died in a three-car accident in the beginning of December.
Police say that she was driving alone in a northbound Subaru, which crossed the centre line and slammed into two southbound vehicles. Mann died at the scene, while the occupants of the other vehicles escaped with minor injuries.
RCMP would later report that it was one of six separate highway accidents that occurred throughout the province that week.
Homicides claim the lives of Squamish residents
Murder claimed the lives of local residents in two gut-wrenching cases that shook the town.
The first incident took the life of Raena Henry (Harry), the step-daughter of the well-known former Squamish Nation councillor Dale Harry.
She was found dead in her downtown home in March. Police opened an investigation and would later call the incident a homicide.
Little information has been made public since.
Later in the year, two men — a Squamish resident and his friend — would disappear near Ucluelet.
RCMP would later find the remains of Dan Archbald and Ryan Daley near where they went missing in May after docking in Ucluelet. They were returning from a two-month sailing trip to Panama.
A homicide investigation was launched. The United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA, has gotten involved in the case, which a spokesperson characterized as routine in such cases.
