North Shore hikers rescued after cold night on Mount Seymour
Posted December 3, 2021 9:03 am.
Last Updated December 3, 2021 9:05 am.
It’s been a cold night for a pair of hikers.
The two women spent a day in the Mount Elsay area on Mount Seymour but failed to make it back when they were supposed to.
“Somehow the Vancouver Police were involved and they called the RCMP at about 9:30 last night and the RCMP called the team and said that these two women were meant to be in, their car was still in the parking lot up Mount Seymour, and it looked like they hadn’t made it out,” explained Peter Haigh with North Shore Rescue.
He says three teams were sent out around 11 p.m. Thursday because NSR wasn’t sure which direction the two women were headed in.
“The RCMP helicopter did fly over and spotted some lights, which was our subjects, in a particular location — quite a difficult location — well off the main trail,” he told CityNews Friday.
Haigh says crews were eventually able to get to the women early Friday morning.
“Our team got down to them with a backup team and found the subjects unhurt but cold and they didn’t seem to be moving. I guess they realized they were going in the wrong direction,” he said.
“Our team rewarmed them and started walking them out. The subjects now had gotten to the extent that they were exhausted.”
Because of how tired the women were, Haigh says crews decided to hunker down and wait to be long-lined out after sunrise.
Haigh says it looks like the two hikers just ran out of daylight, noting they had “reasonable clothing and so on,” and maybe underestimated the trail they were on.
“The obvious (lesson) is don’t take off more than you can chew and make sure you get back in daylight. They obviously were running late, they should have turned around earlier. You’ve got to get out in daylight in this weather — it’s very icy underfoot and that may have added to their grief,” he added.
In all, about 16 people with NSR were involved in this call.
