Lost Skier on Grouse Mountain

17:30 Tuesday night my pager goes off “Lost skier on Grouse – all members call in status and respond.” I was just finishing up my workout at the gym – unfortunately I was doing legs and back, not a great combination before a search.

I jumped in my truck and headed back to North Vancouver. I grabbed all my winter gear including, avalanche beacon, probe, shovel, snowshoes, poles, parka, stove, lots of extra clothes, flares, tarp, first aid, power bars, head lamps, batteries, GPS…etc. My winter pack weight ranges from 50-70lbs.

Driving to the mountain my thermometer on my truck read -9 C. So that would mean its about -15, -16 C on the hill, and with wind that could drop much further. It was going to be a cold one.



I headed up the tram and met up with Forward Control, aka Tim at the Peak Office.

I was then tasked out with Greg and Mike to sign cut off of the left of the Olympic Chair. As we were about to start our assignment, Air 1 (RCMP Chopper) radioed in and reported that they had sighted the subject in Kennedy Gully. A completely different area than was originally suspected. Generally we don’t have air support at night, as many pilots are not qualified/licensed to fly in the mountains at night, but apparently this pilot was an experienced mountain pilot. He had just cut hours off of our search, and saved the subject from severe hypothermia. It would have taken us hours of searching to find him, had he not spotted him from the air.


(Map of Grouse - Subject went off of right side of the map off of Olympic Chair)


A search team was immediately dispatched into Kennedy Creek drainage and we were assigned to back them up. The chopper hovered above the subject long enough for the advance team to spot the location and then had to return to Vancouver, due to low fuel.

It took the team in front of us a few hours to reach the subject, and we followed in behind them to assist. The main concern was avalanche hazard, as the snow was fresh and deep and they were heading into a drainage. Greg, Mike and I hung back at the top of the pass away from avalanche danger in case we had to go in to provide rescue to the rescuers.

The advance team located the subject, and provided him with snowshoes, water and some food and started hiking back. In the mean time we hunkered down in the snow, watching the temperature drop on our thermometers. We quickly found that even with parkas on etc. it was too cold to sit, so we kept warm stomping out “Helicopter pads” in the snow.

Tim let us know that the “heli-pads” were wishful thinking on our part. I think Tim felt bad about making us sit in the deep freeze, but as I said later – it was a good character building experience.

The advance search team and subject met up with our “camp” an hour later and we hiked out together exiting the trail around 01:00. The subject met up with his new wife at the base, and thanked everyone for rescuing him - a good end for our first customer of the winter season.

There will be more.

Hypothermia Treatment Training

I missed training last Tuesday - Hypothermia treatment - mainly due to exhaustion from the Wilderness First Aid course, and the 18 hours of searching. I figured between the course, and treating hypothermia patients in the field, in the two days prior to training, I could take Tuesday off to recover.

Tomorrow we have "AED re-cert" - translated as Automated External Defribulation re-certification training. Not the most exciting training night - but it could save a life, mainly each others, as we don't carry AED's in the field - just a tad too heavy. We do carry them in vehicles, and we have them stored in a few cache's in the field.

Today, I had my mobile radio installed in my truck, as I got a new truck a few months ago, helped out with equipment at the Embassy (the NSR "office"/works yard) and went by MEC to pick up some more equipment for our mountain caches. Not very glamorous or exciting, but necessary chores of a rescue volunteer.

Wilderness First Aid Course

This past weekend we had a Wilderness First Aid course. Great refresher course for me. Its been a year and half since I completed OFA III so it was definitely time to review. Our last scenario was a semi-conscious subject with head injuries, possible spinal injuries and a fractured femur. We had to create a strecher out of available materials, package him and get him back to the cabin. It was pouring rain all weekend, so we were wet most of the time.


Picture of the Lions (Winter).


At the end of the course, Sunday night, we got paged out for a rescue - two males, 16 and 17 years old, called 911 from somewhere on the Howe Sound Crest trail. They were lost and it was getting dark and raining hard (record rainfall was recorded for Sunday night and Monday morning). It was a Lions Bay SAR call, so I didn't end up getting tasked until 3am. At 3am I went up to Lions Bay and I was dispatched with Don and Russ to hike up the East side of Mt. Harvey via the old logging road (the word "road" doesn't really apply - more of an old trail). We set off and ended up starting our hike at about 6am, in the dark and torrential down pour. We made our way up the trail and met up with the Howe Sound Crest Trail, North West of David's Peak. We made our way along the trail, calling out with our loud hailer, siren and whistles. It was extremely hard to hear due to the hurricane force winds on the ridge and rain.

At about 1:30pm we thought we heard a reply to our calls but could not be sure. We continued hiking South East along the trail. As we hiked down into the col between the Lions and the ridge we saw Adam and Alec and their two dogs hiking towards us. When we met up with them Don asked "Have you guys seen any lost hikers?". They responded "Yes, that would be us" (a bit of search and rescue humour).

They were extremely wet, tired and cold. Their cotton clothes were soaked, so we re-clothed them, provided some food and water, checked pulses, circulation and started hiking towards the Lions. If you have done the trail you know that some sections are a little exposed and tough at the best of times. So after no sleep for both rescuers and subjects, pouring rain, wind, fog, and exhaustion, the trail was a little challenging.

At some points I was holding on to one of the subjects in front of me with one hand, holding on to the rock with the other hand, and keeping an eye on Mocha, the dog, behind me, which would occasionaly try and bite us. I was hoping Mocha wouldn't try and take a chunk out of me on the vertical parts of the trail as we would both end up going for a long ride down the mountain.

We made it over the ridge, and met up with our back-up team at about 4pm. We again reclothed and fed Adam and Alec - who were doing extremely well considering the circumstances and continued down. We finally made it out at about 6:30pm. Their parents were extremely grateful to have there children back safe and sound. Adam and Alec were very thankful as well.

It was great to have a positive outcome on this rescue, as we carry too many young people out of the mountains, who haven't been so lucky.

Hope to see you kids out hiking again, and maybe they will think about joining NSR once they are old enough. They would be great additions to the team.