The daylight time change has stranded its first victim in the North Shore Mountains.
North Shore Rescue was scouring Mount Seymour in the rain Sunday night after a 60-year-old local man was reported overdue from his hike.
The man’s wife became worried when he failed to come home and all of her calls to his cellphone went to voicemail. He’d set out on his hike around 2:30 p.m. with sunset coming in less than two hours.
“He didn’t give himself a lot of daylight hours,” said Mike Danks, North Shore Rescue team leader, although, unlike most rescue subjects NSR deals with, the man was an experienced hiker who was well equipped with extra clothing and a headlamp and solid local trail knowledge.
Still, with no cellphone contact, it took searchers several hours to find him.
Search managers sent in the three rescue teams on foot around 7:30 p.m. to search the area around First Pump Peak. Eventually, they made voice contact with him around midnight and found him cliff-banded in an area northeast of the peak, before walking him out.
“He got off trail in the dark. He got into an area where he wasn’t able to go up or down anymore and he basically just hunkered down there,” Danks said.
The rescue could have been carried out much quicker if the team had been able to get a hold of the hiker directly, Danks said. “The lesson learned here is, if you’re lost, and search and rescue is involved, please conserve your battery and communicate directly with the people who are looking for you.”
