It never happens when you want it to.
North Shore Rescue members were being celebrated at the opening night of Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival Friday evening when duty called.
North Vancouver RCMP paged the volunteer team around 7 p.m. to request help finding a 68-year-old woman who had taken her golden retriever puppy for a walk on Mount Fromme in the early afternoon and not returned.
NSR sent in several ground teams to comb the mountain bike trails where the woman was known to walk her dog, as well as the east bank and west banks of Lynn Creek.
Without help on the way, the woman had little hope of getting out on her own, said Doug Pope, North Shore Rescue search manager.
“We were getting a little bit worried because we had been searching for a while and, no luck,” he said. “She didn’t have any means of communication. No cellphone or satellite beacon.
She had no navigation tools — a map, compass or GPS — and she had no light, so once it got dark she was completely stuck and couldn’t do much but just crawl under a log and wait for help.”
North Shore Rescue members used loud-hailers and parachute flares in hopes their subject would notice the commotion and call out for help.
It was the pup who first heard the team’s calls and started barking, allowing searchers to home in on their location about three kilometres up the Big Cedar Trail, a non-sanctioned and poorly marked path that runs north from the mountain biking area.
“She was cold and wet and really glad to see us but she wasn’t injured,” Pope said.
By the time the ground team walked her out around 1 a.m., the soirée and film at Centennial Theatre were over.
“That’s what we’re here for. It’s never at the most opportune time but we were happy to help out,” Pope said.
The incident underscores the risk of going into the backcountry unprepared, even for a short while, Pope said.
“Things can go wrong even on a short dog walk. The key is being prepared for these types of mishaps when you’re hiking in the forest,” he said.
