To The Rescue! All-volunteer North Shore Rescue saves lives in British Columbia’s busiest mountains By SteveN thReNdyle PhotoS By JAy Piggot North Shore Rescue members use their probes during an avalanche rescue drill on Cypress Mountain. 50 • B C m B C m • 5 1 The errOrs, in many cases, seem ri- The OldesT member of North Shore the 911 call came on the evening of diculously innocuous, if not stupid, and Rescue is 84-year-old Karl Winter, who November 3, 2015. two hikers were they compound very, very quickly. Sto- participated in his first rescue at the age ries abound, like that of British tourist of 17 on his very first mountain climb stranded and hunkered down in a gully Tim Billings, who, in November of 2014, in the Austrian Alps. “My partner and I on Crown Pass, a short distance from didn’t tell anyone that he was heading were staying in a tent outside a hut, when out for a hike and remains missing to word came down that there were climb- grouse Mountain in North vancouver. this very day. On another occasion, res- ers stranded high on the mountain.” The Immediately, a call-out was issued for They weren’t wearing traction spikes, let cuers were clued in to a snowshoer’s hut master requested that Winter and his searchers from the North Shore Rescue, alone crampons. whereabouts by following droplets of partner help out with the rescue, and he’s most of whom were likely looking for- The North Shore Mountains ensnare blood into a steep gully that he’d rag- been helping out ever since, especially af- ward to a relaxing night of TV or help- both the neophyte and the experienced dolled down the day before. In another ter moving to Canada in the early 1950s. In ing their kids with homework. It was too trekker. The three main trailheads—Cy- incident, former team leader Tim Jones 1965, Winter attended the very first meet- dark for the team to order a helicopter press Mountain, Grouse Mountain and discovered a missing British tourist who ing of a new mountain first aid committee from Vancouver airport, and so the rescue Mount Seymour—are busy ski resorts that had been snowboarding near Cypress that would later become team set out on foot in the dark to locate have direct car access from downtown. (In Mountain and had followed a creekbed known as North Shore the two out-of-town hikers. fact, Grouse even has regularly scheduled down the mountain. He was found face Rescue. Not only is the volun- They were extremely lucky—cellphone shuttle service from the downtown hotels down with two broken legs, dead. Then “During the Cold War, teer work demanding, NSR members go coverage cuts out a short distance from to its parking lot, and public transit drops there was the dawn rescue of a trio of some of the scenarios we through an intensive where they were huddled in a creek, locals and visitors alike at Grouse’s door- experienced trail runners, who spent a were preparing for con- two-year training and their rescuers were able to quickly step at 45 minute intervals.) mercifully balmy night “spooning” to centrated more on civil program. locate them via “pings” on their GPS- Many, it seems, are simply blind to the conserve their body heat under a tree. defense than recreational enabled phone. dangers that surround them, in some Unlike the topography of, say, Alber- rescues,” he says. Rescues The following day, North Shore Rescue cases just a few metres off a well-defined ta’s Rocky Mountains, the vast major- often put the searchers at as much risk as spokesperson Doug Pope didn’t mince trail. After all, Canada’s third-largest city ity of Coast Range terrain is covered by the victims themselves. “We didn’t have words: “If we hadn’t reached them, they sits less than a half-hour drive below the dense forest that looks impenetrable, very good radio contact. Sometimes, our would have died out there. They were trails. Between hubris and oblivion lies even from the bubble of a helicopter. search teams would fan out and one team shivering and hypothermic, and not at all perhaps the most dangerous mountain And if there is a clearing on a moun- would find the victim, take him home, and prepared for the winter conditions.” range close to a major city anywhere in tainside, usually it’s a sheer rock bluff then go to bed. The other teams would the world. with no possible route down. Even on complete their assignments and return On a scale of one to 10, the mistakes the sunniest July days, the trees cast home much later, unaware that the rescue made by those two hikers likely war- deep shadows, which further obscure was over.” ranted a nine. They were inexperienced vision. As NSR team leader Mike Winter says that the creation of Moun- hikers—walkers, really—who had found the 10 essentials Danks says, “most of our rescues take tain Equipment Co-op in the 1970s was an the trail by consulting Google Earth and Carrying these 10 essential systems on any back- place in Class Five terrain where some early turning point in recreational hiking, thought it would only take seven hours to country adventure is a good habit to get into, and kind of rope rescue is needed to re- climbing and snowshoeing—although or- complete. They chose Hanes Valley Trail, could save your life. Here is the updated list from move the victim.” ganizations like the Alpine Club of Cana- the most challenging day-hike in the The Mountaineers’ seminal book Mountaineering: Objective hazards and dangers lurk da, the B.C. Mountaineering Club, Varsity North Shore Mountains. The Freedom of the Hills. everywhere. “The first instinct for a lot Outdoor Club and North Shore Hikers They were ill-prepared to spend the of lost hikers is to go down,” says Danks. had been quite active, going all the way night—with the recent switch from day- 1. Navigation (map and compass) “On the North Shore Mountains, going back to the early 1900s. Even the name light savings time to standard time, the 2. Sun protection (sunglasses and sunscreen) down in the hopes that you’ll run into a of one of the North Shore’s most heavily hikers got a late start—and weren’t car- 3. Insulation (extra clothing) road or trail is a really, really bad idea.” used trails—the Baden Powell Trail—com- rying any extra clothing or even a head- 4. Illumination (headlamp/flashlight) Disoriented snowboarders have post- memorates the founder of the worldwide 5. First-aid supplies lamp. Even in the full light of long days holed in chest-deep snow for days on Boy Scouts organization who helped build 6. Fire (waterproof matches/lighter/candles) in June and July, the Hanes Valley Trail end, like Sebastian Boucher did in 2012. the 48-kilometre trail in 1971. 7. Repair kit and tools sees rescues for people who run out of (His rescue is estimated to have cost Of course, a lot of technology has 8. Nutrition (extra food) daylight and are befuddled by tricky over $10,000 in helicopter time alone.) changed since that time, or, as NSR mem- 9. Hydration (extra water) navigational challenges where the trail Hiking has been long-established in ber Scott Campbell puts it, “helicopters 10. Emergency shelter disappears and becomes a “route,” re- the rugged outdoor mountain culture and cellphones have changed the game quiring not only physical stamina but of Vancouver, pretty much since the first when it comes to mountain rescue.” mental acuity to keep heading in the British settlers arrived here in the late Nowhere, perhaps, do helicopters proper direction. 19th century. Though their elevation is and cellphones go together like on the They weren’t prepared for winter rather modest at around 1,500 metres, Grouse Grind. weather—indeed, for the previous three a fascination has always existed around The Grind is a steep, stiff and not terribly days a drenching rainstorm lashed the iconic peaks like The Lions, Mount Sey- scenic trail that has become synonymous Vancouver region and blasted the moun- mour, Cathedral Mountain, and, farther as a fitness test more than a mountaineer- taintops with their first layers of snow east, Golden Ears and Mount Cheam/ ing achievement. The climb is known for and ice. Footing on the trail is notori- Lucky Four Group. Early ascents be- being a tough, almost outdoor gym-like ously dangerous even in dry weather, as came front-page news in the Vancouver workout; indeed, the term “Mother Na- critical portions of the route are nothing Sun newspaper; one intrepid explorer ture’s Stairmaster” has often been used more than an unstable field of large boul- signaled his successful ascent by light- to describe its difficulty. Even superbly fit ders and scree slopes that require almost ing a fire on top of the Lions that was individuals can succumb to the exertion, goat-like footing to successfully traverse. visible from downtown Vancouver. in June of 2015, a 55-year-old man died 52 • B C m B C m • 5 3 from a cardiac arrest; the third such per- only a block or two from a swift-flowing when responsible hikers made sure to son to do so in the past decade. On sunny creek or dangerous ravine,” says Danks. carry the 10 essentials in order to sur- summer days, the Grouse Grind lineup vive a night or two in the bush.