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.