A cliff jumping accident in Lynn Canyon Park Monday evening sent a 20-year-old woman to hospital with spinal injuries and has local first responders once again highlighting the dangers of this perennial summer pastime.
The young woman was with friends when she jumped from a ledge nine metres above Lynn Creek, where water levels are considerably lower than normal for this time of year, according to District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services assistant chief Mike Cairns.
Around 5 p.m., fire and rescue crews arrived on scene, below Twin Falls Bridge — a popular swimming hole half a kilometre south of the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge — and found an injured woman stranded on a rock in the middle of Lynn Creek.
“She had some assistance from her friends who were with her,” said Cairns. “She tried to stand up and was unable to, so they laid her back down on the rock.”
It is unclear how the woman sustained her injuries, added Cairns, and whether or not they were caused upon impact with the water or by hitting the bottom of the creek. “We took the spinal board and basket out to the rock and stabilized her. . . . We were treating her for possible lower back and spinal injuries with early onset hypothermia,” said Cairns.
The woman, who is a local, was taken to Lions Gate Hospital for treatment, and the extent of her injuries is unknown.
Local or not, however, there are plenty of cliff-jumping warning signs — along with memorials for those who lost their lives to the canyon — throughout the park. To reach the ledge at Twin Falls, explained Cairns, the woman had to climb over a fence with a sign that reads: Extreme Danger, Don’t Go Behind This Point. Cairns said there is often an element of bravado or peer pressure at play in these cases.
Witnesses reported the young woman didn’t look comfortable and was apprehensive about the jump into the canyon. “And her friends were like, ‘Come on, you can do it,’ sort of thing,” said Cairns.
