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Ten calls swallow North Shore Rescue volunteers' long weekend

Working with a skeleton crew, North Shore Rescue members were called out for 10 rescue missions over the B.C. Day long weekend.
NS Rescue

Working with a skeleton crew, North Shore Rescue members were called out for 10 rescue missions over the B.C. Day long weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, the all-volunteer team airlifted a 55-year-old woman who had fallen almost five metres from the ridge leading up Coliseum Mountain.

The victim had received a broken wrist and cracked ribs in the fall, according to team leader Mike Danks. But with no cell reception in the backcountry, she had to wait several hours for another hiker to reach civilization and call 9-1-1.

Fearing she had a spinal injury as well, rescuers packaged her into a stretcher and long-lined the woman to a waiting ambulance.

North Shore Rescue members also dropped what they were doing to assist Grouse Grind rescues, sniffing out lost hikers on Mount Seymour and Mount Fromme and being called to help fetch an errant paraglider out of a tree on the Sunshine Coast (although local firefighters got the job done before North Shore Rescue members arrived.)

The work wasn’t over until Tuesday morning when the team helped Lions Bay Search & Rescue to long-line an injured hiker who had to stay overnight in the backcountry near the Lions.

Long weekends are challenging times for North Shore Rescue’s members because the mountain trails flood with extra hikers and there are fewer rescuers available to bail them out of trouble.

“It’s very taxing because we only have a very small core group that actually stayed in town. They put their plans off in order to make sure we had coverage for our community. I think those guys really need kudos,” Danks said. “It’s a challenge because you’re away from your family and you’re not enjoying the weekend like everybody else is but you know what? That’s what we signed up for and we’re here to support our community.”

Accidents can happen, even to experienced and well-prepared hikers, such as in the Coliseum Mountain case, Danks said, but there is a troubling trend in people winding up in need of a rescue because of careless errors.

“It just seems like there’s a lot of people getting out into the backcountry and they’re really not taking the time to make sure they know the areas they’re going into and they’re not bringing a headlamp, communications device, extra food and water. It seems like the message is slipping a little bit, especially on the weekends,” he said.