NORTH Shore Rescue was kept busy last weekend responding to a series of calls from injured or stranded hikers, many of whom needed rescue by helicopter.
District of North Vancouver firefighters called the team Friday, Aug. 28 just after 5 p.m. to help a young man who had fractured his leg falling six metres off a waterfall on Mosquito Creek. The firefighters needed air support, because the rocky terrain was too rough for the injured hiker to walk on. A helicopter flight crew hauled the victim up on a rope and took him to hospital.
The following morning, North Shore Rescue helped out a 50year-old woman who had been hiking on the Lynn Headwaters loop trail and had tripped and fallen on rocks, fracturing her leg. The volunteers opened an emergency cache in the area for supplies to splint up the limb, and then carried her to a helipad where she was flown out.
The third incident happened Sunday evening in Lions Bay. Rescuers were called to the Harvey Creek area where a man had become stranded in a ravine, separated from his hiking party after injuring his foot. Racing the approaching darkness, the team flew to him by helicopter and lifted him out of the gully, just before it got too dark to pilot the aircraft.
As the team was wrapping up that incident, they were called out again, this time to help a hiker who had lost his way on North Vancouver's Mount Seymour as he was returning from the peak. The man had nothing with him but a cellphone and water bottle. Rescuers from the North Shore and Lions Bay hurried to the area by foot, finding him late in the evening and returning him to safety at about 1 a.m.
In the wake of the incidents, North Shore Rescue spokesman Tim Jones reminded hikers to be wary of shorter days as autumn approaches. Crews can't perform helicopter rescues after dusk, he noted. The hiker on Seymour had no flashlight, added Jones, which made it much more difficult to track him down.
