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Distress call search ties up North Shore Rescue

Was it a false alarm? A minor incident quickly resolved? Or a prank? Those are questions North Shore Rescue volunteers are left asking after responding to a distress call in the Mount Seymour backcountry Sunday and finding no one in need of help.
NSR
A Talon helicopter used by North Shore Rescue members

Was it a false alarm? A minor incident quickly resolved? Or a prank? Those are questions North Shore Rescue volunteers are left asking after responding to a distress call in the Mount Seymour backcountry Sunday and finding no one in need of help.

North Vancouver RCMP paged North Shore Rescue around 1:15 p.m. after a snowshoer heard a call for help come in over her family service radio (walkie-talkie) on Dog Mountain just west of Seymour.

"She heard a distress call over the radio and talked to who she thought was a woman calling for help (for about) 10 minutes," said Doug Pope, North Shore Rescue search manager. "But this informant couldn't get much other details out of who it was, or where they were other than that they needed help."

Thinking that a lost hiker might have stumbled onto NSR's shelter and supply cache in Suicide Gully, Pope sent a team in via helicopter to search the area. When that search turned up no sign, they sent the team to the top of Seymour and into the Seymour Valley hoping to track the subject down using another family service radio.

"We checked off all the most likely scenarios and didn't find anything and we shut it down based on the fact we didn't have any further information to go on," Pope said. "It was a lot of searching and it didn't come up with anyone needing help."

Since the call, the RCMP has been keeping an eye out for new missing persons reports and checked to see if any vehicles were left unclaimed in the Seymour area.

"It could very well have been someone that was in distress but was helped or made it out on their own but it is very important for the public to know if you're doing that, you need to follow up. Let the RCMP know you called for help but you're fine," Pope said. "Lastly, it could have just been a prank."

Family service radios are a good backup to cellphones in the backcountry, as long as you tell someone you'll be using one, Pope said. Emergency communications on FSRs should be kept to Channel 1.