7 People Rescued on Grind - Bring a Flashlight

NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - With the return of standard time on Sunday, it gets dark an hour earlier, and several people were caught off-guard on the Grouse Grind yesterday.

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http://www.news1130.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20091102_121616_12280


Please remember to bring a flashlight when hiking at any time.

North Shore News Article on Sunday Rescue

North Shore News has written a more complete story on the rescue on Sunday -

http://www2.canada.com/northshorenews/news/story.html?id=0aae43e4-d8f2-4983-bde2-de52a8c8443b

Medical Rescue on Grouse

Yesterday evening we received a page for an injured skiier on Grouse Mountain.

We responded to Capilano Gate SAR Station and launched an HFRS operation in an attempt to quickly extract the subject before dark. Unfortunately the subject was in a heavily treed gully and HFRS was not possible. However, two members were inserted via HFRS and accessed him quickly.

Concurrently members were descending from the base of the Cut on Grouse and arrived at the subject not long after with a Cascade Strecher.

A conventional rope rescue operation was launched, and our Rope Rescue kit was brought down to the subject along with two 300 foot ropes. Coquitlam SAR and Lions Bay SAR were also brought in to help.

The subject was packaged and brought out to the base of the Eagle Chair using 3 to 1 pulley systems, counter balance and direct pulling. It was quite exhausting for all involved, but we managed to get the subject to the base of the chair by midnight.


The reason for the call was that the subject, a male in his 30's, went out of bounds at the base of the Cut and skiied down the old chairlift line. He veered off to the right into a gully, descended a few hundred feet, hit a tree and broke his leg. The subject stated he had consumed a number of alchoholic drinks and some mild sedatives either prior to or after the accident. This appeared to be a factor in this accident, as well as creating a situation where it was very difficult to understand the subject over the cell phone.

We were able to get a helicopter up to pin point his location, otherwise it would have been very difficult to locate him. His description of where he was put him in a drainage further to the East.

Special thanks to Grouse Resorts, Metro Vancouver, Coquitlam SAR, and Lions Bay SAR for providing fantastic operational support and man power.

Roy Mason

Just received this message from Tim Jones:

Just wanted all members to know that Roy Mason, a long time supporter of NSR and former member of the old Mountain Rescue Group (which Karl, Gerry, George and other NSR members belonged to also), died while hiking on the BCMC trail Feb 17.

His family has directed all donations to NSR.

Avalanche Awareness Days 2009 at Grouse Mountain

Join the Solicitor General, the AdventureSmart Team, the Provincial Emergency Program, the Canadian Avalanche Centre, and North Shore Rescue at Grouse Mountain on January 10 and 11, 2009, to promote public safety in the face of avalanche hazards.

Avalanche Awareness Days is an annual public education initiative, and the event is very timely this year in light of the province-wide focus on issues concerning snow instability and access to uncontrolled terrain.

As part of the annual campaign, everyone is encouraged to attend and learn about outdoor safety and snow awareness. The AdventureSmart Team will demonstrate new safety equipment and survival techniques proven to save lives.

A press conference will be held on Saturday, January 10, at 10 a.m. by British Columbia’s Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General, the Honourable John van Dongen, in front of the Peak Chalet at Grouse Mountain.

The executive director of the Provincial Emergency Program, Cam Filmer, will also speak. Media interested in attending the event are advised to contact the public relations office at Grouse Mountain on Friday, January 9, to arrange Skyride passes for personnel.

Please note that Saturday will be an exceptionally busy day atop Grouse Mountain and advance notice of your attendance is required to secure a spot on the Skykride.

For more information, please contact:


William Mbaho
Manager, Public Relations & Communications
Grouse Mountain Resorts Ltd.
Direct: 604.998.4255
Mobile: 604.764.8522
Fax: 604.984.7234
http://www.grousemountain.com/

Four Rescued on Grouse Mountain

Three skiers and one snowboarder were rescued on Grouse Mountain yesterday when they ducked under a rope and headed out of bounds. Ski patrol verbally asked them to return from the dangerous avalanche prone area, which they refused. Ski patrol could not follow the men out of bounds due to the high avalanche danger but a helicopter was called in and assisted the group back to safety. Read the article in the Province "Skiers, snowboarder face bans"

Grouse Mountain

Over the last few weeks there have been a number of rescues. This past weekend a climber was rescued from Mt. Harvey by Lions Bay and North Shore SAR. He was evacuated via stretcher with severe head trauma. At this point he is alive but his condition is unknown.

(Photo Credit: Wade Shaw)

At the beginning of January I also took the Canadian Avalanche Association Level 1 course in Fernie with Jimmy, Curtis, and Guy. This is a 7 day intensive Avalanche operations course, covering avalanche prediction, prepardness, terrain evaluation, snow study, beacon searching etc. The days were around 12 hours and started at 6:45am. Great course - lots of information. NSR has committed to providing more funds for members to take these kinds of courses to help improve safety while we are operating during times of poor snow stability.

FROM NORTH SHORE NEWS
Out-of-bounders trigger risky rescue
Father and son from PoCo put rescuers at risk from avalanche

Bethany Lindsay, North Shore NewsPublished: Wednesday, January 02, 2008

A father and his son are lucky to be home safe after getting trapped in deep snow when they deliberately snowboarded out-of-bounds at Grouse Mountain on Saturday.
The risky six-hour rescue has prompted North Shore Rescue and Grouse Mountain ski patrol to remind skiers and snowboarders that they aren't only risking their own lives when they choose to disrespect trail boundaries.
"If your own personal safety is not a good enough motivation to stay in-bounds, consider the safety of the people who have to find you," said Chris Dagenais, a spokesman for Grouse Mountain.

The 46-year-old father and his 14-year-old son, who live in Port Coquitlam, admitted during a debriefing with North Shore Rescue and the RCMP that they had deliberately climbed under the ropes at the top of the Olympic chairlift to enter the gully system between Thunderbird Ridge and Fromme Mountain. At 3:30 p.m., they found themselves in snow too deep to snowboard or walk through, and called 9-1-1.
Members of the mountain's ski patrol team managed to find the general location of the two men, and stayed in voice contact with them until North Shore Rescue volunteers arrived with back-up recruited from Coquitlam and Lions Bay and avalanche dogs from the Canadian Avalanche Association.
Ski patrollers were stationed near the top of the gully to monitor snow conditions, while North Shore Rescue sent an advance "hasty" team up into the gully, with two support teams below in case of an avalanche.
"I cannot overemphasize that there was a very real danger to the hasty team," Jones said. The snow in the gully reached their chests, and it was snowing heavily. "This was not a normal search operation."
The hasty team traversed the approximately 150 metres uphill on snowshoes to reach the trapped men shortly before 9 p.m.
As the rescue team was working its way out of the gully with the two snowboarders, who were cold but uninjured, Jones received word from the ski patrol above that they had seen several small avalanches.
The team managed to reach the rescue base safely, but "it was a very tense 45 minutes for all of us," Jones said.
Avalanches aren't the only danger for people who go off the marked trails, Dagenais said. The boundaries also keep skiers safe from steep waterfalls, cliffs, fallen trees, rocks, and dangerous ice.
"Out of bounds means out of bounds," Dagenais said. "It gets pretty frustrating when, year after year, you see people knowingly transgressing these boundaries."
Jones said that he hates making the choice to gamble the lives of his volunteers, many of whom are young men with families, to rescue people who have knowingly entered backcountry areas without the proper equipment and training.
"This was a completely unnecessary call," Jones said. "There has to be a level of respect for what the volunteer search and rescue people are asked to do."
The ski hill will give the snowboarders a few days to recuperate before revoking their season's passes.

Google Earth Image of Rescue Route (credit: Doug Pope)

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.