FOUR snowboarders who went out of bounds on Cypress Mountain were rescued from an icy gully Thursday night, thanks to sharp-eyed ski patrollers and a quick response from North Shore Rescue.
Tim Jones, spokesman for North Shore Rescue, said the snowboarders were extremely lucky.
Rescuers got the call shortly after 4 p.m. - just as the light was fading - and managed to scramble a Talon helicopter to drop two rescuers into the area before darkness fell. That could well have made the difference between life and death for at least one of the snowboarders, who had become separated from the group and was in danger of hypothermia by the time he was reached, said Jones.
"We didn't have a lot of time on this. It was very cold, icy conditions," said Jones. "This could have been a very painful lesson for these guys."
Trouble started early Thursday afternoon when the group of four snowboarders - all in their mid-20s and from the Lower Mainland - went out of bounds on the east side of Mount Strachan. Jones said the group knew what they were doing and took a foolish risk, travelling past large signs that warn skiers and snowboarders they are leaving the controlled ski area.
The snowboarders quickly found themselves in steep, icy terrain known as "Australian Gully" heading down towards Strachan Creek. Jones said the area has been the scene of several fatalities.
The group then made a series of additional mistakes. When they realized they were lost, instead of calling 9-1-1 right away, the snowboarders spent at least two hours trying to find a way out of the gully and calling their friends on their cellphones.
That used up valuable daylight hours. In their panic to get out of the gully, one of the snowboarders also became separated from the others.
Fortunately, friends of the missing snowboarders did alert authorities later that afternoon. Ski patrollers conducted a search and found tracks leading to the gully.
Jones said the two North Shore Rescue members who were dropped off by helicopter then hiked down into the icy gully wearing crampons. One of the rescuers reached three of the snowboarders and got them into a safe area.
It took another hour for the second rescuer to reach the last snowboarder. "He was a combination of stuck and exhausted," said Jones.
Jones said if rescuers hadn't come, that snowboarder could have easily perished. "With a minor injury in that environment, without proper equipment, they make bad choices and they die," he said.
Meanwhile, an 11-man back-up rescue team two took hours to reach the area by land. The team set up ropes on the icy slope to help get rescuers in to the area and the snowboarders out.
The rescue concluded after 10 p.m. Thursday night.
Jones added once they were safe, the snowboarders were given a "very frank talking to about what could have and would have happened if we had not been able to get to them.
"They weren't equipped mentally or physically to deal with the situation. They got themselves in a (heap) of trouble," he said.
Two of the snowboarders were from Vancouver, one was from Coquitlam while one was from Surrey.
Jones noted that earlier the same day, the rescue team had received a unit citation from Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu for its work.
Jones had some advice for others on what to do if you get lost in the mountains. "Call 9-1-1 right away. Try to stay high. Don't go low. You'll lose the cell signal" - as well as risking falling into more treacherous terrain, he said. Groups should also stay together and stay put as much as possible.
