Christmas Rescue

Unfortunately, Killaine & I's Christmas tradition of doing a backcountry ski up Seymour was pre-empted by a rescue for two stranded backcountry skiers in the Mt. Seymour backcountry.

In a nutshell, a couple of backcountry skiers who seemed to be inexperienced with the Mt. Seymour terrain went off for a tour on Christmas Eve.  They ended up lower down on the east side of Mt. Seymour, between De Poncier Lake and Theta Lake.  They had run into very steep terrain and apparently had both been caught in an avalanche, yet were able to extract themselves.  They spent the night out and called (via cell phone) for a rescue Christmas morning.

We were paged at around 11am to respond to our SAR station at Bone Creek.  At that time, the weather was generally clear, although clouds were starting to form on Mt. Seymour.  Our team leader was able to locate the skiers from the helicopter.  Originally, the plan was to do a long line rescue, but the clouds closed in before it we were ready to do the rescue.

So, Plan B was quickly formed - knowing the location of the stranded skiers, a ski team was dispatched from the Mt. Seymour ski area.  They encountered very deep snow, and called for a backup snowshoe team to help flatten out the trail for the climb back out.  Curtis, John, Doug & I were this team.   We took the Mystery Peak chairlift up Mt. Seymour, met up with one of the ski area's snowmobiles, and were transferred to the alpine trail near Brockton Point.  

From there, we made good progress along the alpine trail and then down into De Poncier Lake.  In the meantime, the ski team had made contact with Behnad - another backcountry skier stranded in the deep snow.  The ski team advised us of their contact with Behnad, so when we reached him at De Poncier lake, Curtis took him back up to the alpine trail and back to the ski area.  In the meantime, Fiona & Keith had skied down to us and proceeded onwards to meet up with the first ski team.

The ski team shortly made contact with the original two backcountry skiers - they were in good condition, though a little tired from their ordeal.  They started skiing them out as when kept snowhoeing in - we met up with the team, then the whole 12 person group (10 rescuers & 2 subjects) went back out as a single group.

The group in the darkness at De Poncier Lake

Doug offers me some M&Ms.  Note how well-dressed he is in our new Arcteryx team jacket & pants!

During this period, it was looking increasingly likely that I, plus most of the other rescuers, were going to be missing Christmas dinner.  That was more than a little disappointing for most of us. Fortunately for myself, however, I was back out at the parking lot by about 7:30pm and managed to get over to Hugh's place (Killaine's brother) just as everyone was finishing up Christmas dinner - they saved some for me, so that was great!  Unfortunately for some of the other rescuers, Christmas dinner was fully missed, so that was a shame.

However, it was a beautiful night out in the mountains.  Coming down from the peak of Mt. Seymour, low cloud was over Vancouver, so there was this cool orange glow coming through the clouds - the sky was clear, and it looke very beautiful with the snow blanketed over everything.  

Snowy!

In the "be careful what you wish for" category ... Vancouver has been receiving truckloads of snow in the city.  Here's our place:

Note sure if you can see the stacks of snow beside Killaine ... I had to shovel the driveway twice yesterday - a day after spending a couple of hours at the NSR embassy shoveling the snow that was collapsing our vehicle canopies!  I actually enjoy shoveling snow ... but this is getting to be a little silly ...

Rescue off Hollyburn

A very successful rescue last night / this morning - a snowshoer fell ~30m down into a steep gully off the west aspect of Hollyburn Mountain - one of his companions was able to climb down to him, but both of them ended up being stuck on a 70 degree slope, hanging on to branches protruding from the snow.

Two members, Al & Jackie, hiked in quickly to the gully, but were unable to access the snowshoers from below.  Myself, Bob, Hannes, Paul & Connie made our way to the top of the gully.  Bob lowered me down into the gully and I made contact with the very cold and very scared couple.  I got harnesses on them, and Bob & team lowered them down the rest of the way to Al & Jackie.  Bob lowered me down, and I hiked out with our subjects.  

Both subjects were fine - the snowshoer who fell in had a few minor scrapes - but both were very cold, but warmed up quickly on the hike out.

A great rescue, and I was very happy to put my rope rescue skills to work.

Some news reports:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/12/16/bc-northshore-cypress-park-snowshow-rescue.html?ref=rss

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081216/BC_cypress_snoeshoers_081216/20081216?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

http://www.news1130.com/news/topstory/article.jsp?content=20081216_084705_15556

A photo of Paul, with me in the background:

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2008/12/16/bc-081216-snowshoers-saved1.jpg

Quick Toodle up Hollyburn

Did a quick toodle up Hollyburn on Sunday while Killaine did some laps in the x-country ski area.  

Snowshoes were a good choice ... still lots of exposed shrubbery under the unconsolidated snow.  Beautiful, clear but cold day.

A photo taken by some folks on their camera-phone.

Winter is Here!

Finally!  Winter arrived on the North Shore!

About 70 or so cm has been dumped on the North Shore mountains - not "tons" by local standards, but enough for Killaine & I to finally get out.

We did the standard short ski up the alpine trail at Mt. Seymour, starting up at around 11:30am or so.  At that time, the trail tends to be busy with backcountry skiers and snowshoers, but everyone seemed quite happy to finally be out in the snow!

My pager went off as we were approaching Brockton Point (at the top) for an injury on the Dog Mountain trail.  So, we ditched our skins and skied down the runs in the ski area.  The ski area wasn't fully opened, so the runs were ungroomed - the skiing was good in the 40cm of new snow, but extreme caution was needed 'cause of the relative shallow depth of the snow, and that the 40cm was pretty much unconsolidated.

Back at the parking lot, I got my radio from my truck, got in touch with my North Shore Rescue colleagues, and quickly jumped into the helicopter for a very short flight into the First Lake on the Dog Mountain trail.

The subject, a 12 year old boy had slipped off a small log bridge with his snowshoes on and had twisted his knee quite badly.  I helped package him in the stretcher and get him back to the helicopter, where he was flown out.  Bruce & I accompanied out the other members of the party.

By the way - the party was a scout group out for a snowshoe as part of learning how to survive in the winter.  They appeared to be very well equipped with extra clothes, thermal blankets, etc.  It's good to see people getting out into the backcountry, and being appropriately prepared for emergencies.

Will Winter Ever Come?

Howdy folks,

Things have been quiet here on the blogging front recently.  But, aside from that, the current question is when will it snow?  It's December 6th today ... and the snow conditions on the south coast of BC are pretty darn minimal.

I've been trolling lots of weather sites, and have an impressive list of sites to uncover snow depth and weather info.  But, the reality is that this is a very late start to winter this year.  I skied at Blackcomb on November 27th last year - had a 9000m day, and recorded " blue sky, fresh snow, and cool temperatures - a perfect day!".  I recall a great snow pack.  In constrast, right now Whistler/Blackcomb has a 40cm base (that's, like, one foot and 3 inches or so).  On the local hills, there's no snow covering the lower cut on Grouse Mountain, and only a few centimeters of snow up higher.

Further afield, I've heard that folks have been having some good skiing at Roger's Pass - up above treeline. 

I'm supposed to lead an alpine club trip next weekend to explore up the S and W sides of Mt. Sproatt from the new Whistler Olympic Park (that's where the x-country and ski jumping will be for the 2010 Olympics).  But, they only have a few centimeters on the ground, so very likely I'll be canning that trip ... unless there's a big dump of snow down to 1000m or so (not looking good right now).

Ron, Carole, Gord, Jenny, Killaine & I are planning to do the Bonnington Traverse near Nelson over New Years - snow is pretty light out there too (again, 40cm reported at Whitewater).  

Ah well ... one thing is (hopefully) certain ... it will snow sometime soon!