Quick-thinking group uses clothing, turbans to rescue hiker near Maple Ridge

A group of hikers is being praised for their quick thinking at Golden Ears Provincial Park near Maple Ridge last week, when they used clothing and turbans to save a man who had fallen down a steep embankment.

Rick Laing with Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue says they were called on Thanksgiving Monday to a report of two people stranded at Lower Falls in Golden Ears Provincial Park.

“We sent a hasty team up towards Lower Falls, who encountered seven people coming out, two of which were the subjects,” Laing explained.

“We interviewed them and discovered that five young men had effected the rescue with the use of their turbans and some clothing. They had tied them all together to make one, long rope and were able to help the two people up from the edge of Gold Creek.”

Arvindjit Singh was among the five who helped pull the pair up and away from the rushing waters below.

“We were on the way to go hiking. When we reached the falls, we saw two guys stuck,” he explained, adding they couldn’t call 9-1-1 because they couldn’t get a signal.

Video footage of the rescue has been shared on social media, which Laing says shows the water was “extremely high.”

“If somebody had fallen into the water, it’s very unlikely that they would have survived going over the falls,” he said, adding that has happened several times before with tragic outcomes.

Watch: Group uses clothing, turbans to rescue stranded hiker near Maple Ridge

Laing has nothing but praise for the men’s quick thinking and for being so resourceful.

“I have never seen that, I have never heard that in all my years of search and rescue. That’s one for the books!” he said.

“In looking at the video, they kept themselves safe and were away from the edge of the river. It would appear from the video that they did not put themselves in danger, which is very, very important.”

Singh is also proud of what he and his friends managed to do on the holiday Monday.

“I’m proud of my friends and our community,” he said. “Me and my friends, all my family, and the Sikh community feel proud … we saved two lives with our turbans.”

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If you are thinking about going for a hike, you’re strongly encouraged to read up on the area and find out what the conditions are like ahead of time. Laing says the heavy rain we’ve seen in recent weeks mean a particular risk.

“Everybody needs to stay back from the edges of the rivers and creeks, for a couple reasons. One, the force of the water can undercut the banks … and can be washed away at any moment. The other, of course, is that if they were to slip and fall in, the water is moving at such a speed that they would never be able to recover themselves,” Laing warned.

The water temperature can also be very cold, which means you can become hypothermic very quickly.

“With the force of the water, you just can’t swim in that type of water. It would just sweep you away. With the rocks and boulders that are in a lot of these creeks, you get injured really quickly and then the chances of dying in these types of conditions is very high,” he added.

With files from OMNI TV