North Shore Rescue members have performed what is likely their first life-saving operation of the year in winter conditions after they plucked two Ontario hikers from a cliff ledge in the backcountry.
The couple were on a day hike to Coliseum Mountain Tuesday but got turned around in the Needles area and wound up stranded on a cliff face in Lynn Headwaters.
After a frantic call for help around 2 p.m., NSR members set out by helicopter to find them. With their phones giving inaccurate GPS coordinates, it took searchers more than half an hour to find them in dwindling light and longline them to safety.
The couple had meant well but they were completely unprepared for a night in the wilderness, said NSR team leader Tim Jones.
"They were a very nice couple. They totally realized they were in deep, deep trouble and had they not been able to get out on cellphone, no one knew where they were. It was not a trail they were on. It was a true alpine situation," he said. "The girl was already in the beginning stages of hypothermia. She would not have lasted the night."
Anyone heading into backcountry trails now needs to be prepared for full winter conditions, Jones said. That means wearing appropriate boots and a winter coat and carrying an emergency bivouac sack in case of you are forced to spend the night outside.
