A longtime member of North Shore Rescue has a news flash he’d like to share with ill-prepared Vancouver hikers: it’s winter in the mountains.
John Blown, a member of the team for the past 13 years, said he felt compelled to re-state the obvious this week after watching literally hundreds of people hiking up Mount Seymour Nov. 11 – most of them unprepared for winter conditions.
“What struck me about yesterday was the number of people who were on Mount Seymour,” said Blown on Thursday. “The vast majority of people were prepared for a walk in the city. They were not prepared for a hike in those kind of conditions.”
Among those he and other members of North Shore Rescue encountered Wednesday were people wearing leather office shoes, gumboots, capris, jeans and cotton hoodies without jackets.
“I saw someone hiking in cowboy boots,” he said. “I don’t know how you even hike in cowboy boots. Everyone was slipping and falling.”
While weather at sea level was pleasant on Wednesday, “as soon as you start heading up the mountain there was quite a bit of snow and the temperature dropped and there was quite a strong wind as well,” said Blown.
Those conditions mean if someone gets lost or falls on the ice, a lack of proper gear can turn a situation serious quickly.
“Realistically, if we don’t find someone within the first night, their chances of dying of exposure increase significantly in winter,” he said.
Blown said last November, rescuers were only just in time to save a man who had slipped and fallen down a steep ridge of ice.
“He was hiking alone and no one saw him fall,” he said. Luckily another group of hikers higher up spotted the man as he was lying unconscious in the snow.
Hikers need to wear proper winter hiking boots, warm non-cotton clothing, a jacket, toque, gloves and carry a backpack with a head-lamp, food, water, first-aid gear and maps at the very minimum, he said.
“It’s not a walk in the park,” he said. “It’s winter in the mountains now. The weather’s changed.”
