A dog that chased a squirrel off the St. Mark’s summit was among backcountry adventurers airlifted to safety from local mountains Saturday afternoon by North Shore Rescue.
One man found himself in a precarious place after trying to rescue his dog Bean, which had chased a squirrel off the summit while hiking the Howe Sound Crest Trail.
“The dog had slid down a very steep cliff band,” said Mike Danks, team leader for North Shore Rescue. ”It ended up sliding into a clump of trees.”
Determined to save man’s best friend, the hiker made his way around to the dog on the west side of the summit, and promptly became stuck himself. “He called the police and asked for assistance,” said Danks. “It sounded like he was in a bit of a precarious situation.”
A helicopter rescue was stymied at first because of low cloud cover. Field teams were then sent in from above on ATVs, said Danks.
One rescuer rappelled down the rock face to secure the man and dog to the cliff.
Meanwhile, rescuers had received another call – this time for a man who was stranded on a cliff band near McKay Creek on the side of Grouse Mountain. Danks said the man, obviously in trouble, had been spotted by another hiker on the BCMC trail.
Danks said the man apparently got into the predicament by climbing all the way up a rope only intended to help navigate a portion of the trail he had been on, then scrambling further up a steep rocky slope. “He was a very inexperienced hiker,” said Danks.
Rescuers managed to reach the man from the ground. They then used a 76-metre line to pull both rescuers and the hiker off the cliff with a helicopter.
“This individual was incredibly frightened” when rescuers reached him, said Danks. “He was cowered in a ball, hanging onto a tree.”
Just before dark closed in, the helicopter flew back to St. Mark’s, sending rescuers in on a 60-metre line with flight harnesses for the hiker, his dog and North Shore Rescue team member. That took a bit of fancy footwork, said Danks “all on an incredibly steep rock face.”
It’s the second rescue mounted in recent months after a hiker followed a dog chasing wildlife in precarious terrain.
“If you have a dog that’s prone to chasing wildlife, it might be a good idea to have the dog on a leash,” said Danks.
