The North Shore has lost a giant, almost as big as its mountains.
Tim Jones, the stalwart, outspoken team leader of North Shore Rescue died suddenly while on Mount Seymour Sunday.
For the people of the North Shore, the search and rescue community, the hundreds of people he was instrumental in saving and the thousands more who seek adventure in the backcountry, this loss cannot be understated.
While we all mourn for such a pillar of selflessness, Jones' teammates have an even heavier burden to carry. Finding someone to fill his crampons is a staggering task.
Jones was as much a leader off the mountain as he was on the mountain and he leaves behind some unfinished business that we should not forget about. He was spearheading a campaign to secure legacy funding for NSR to give the team time to focus on training and saving lives, not asking for donations.
He made waves last summer when he asked that the province step up and provide an up-to-date communications network for search and rescue, on-call pay for the busiest volunteers and standby helicopter service. And most recently he took up the cause of adding some cameras to busy North Shore trailheads to get rescuers on the right track within hours, not days.
For years, Jones had been warning us that the existing search and rescue based on volunteers ready to drop professional or family commitments at a moment's notice is not sustainable. Now we're about to find out.
Thank you, Tim. There are hundreds of families left whole because of your actions.
