North Shore Rescue uses night-hoist to carry out two separate rescues

Thanks to their night-hoisting capabilities, North Shore Rescue (NSR) was able to rescue two people on two different mountains on Sunday night.

The first call came in around 5:30 p.m. and involved a very badly injured paraglider who crashed on Mount Brunswick.

“He was a multi-trauma patient, meaning he had multiple significant injuries. We’re not sure if he was still trapped in a tree. Lions Bay Search and Rescue responded, and they requested a night-hoist due to the mechanism of injury and the potential hypothermia conditions because it was quite cold last night,” explains NSR Team Leader Mike Danks.

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The second call involved a man in his 30s who had fallen and was also badly hurt on St. Mark’s Summit.

Danks says this new tool is a game-changer. “The calls were done very quickly because of the tool that was available with the night hoist. These calls required an overland extraction, and they would have taken six to eight hours with up to 20 to 25 people to do and would be very hard on the patient, especially when they have significant injuries like that.”

This was the third- and fourth-night-hoist rescue since late last month.

The tool is part of a pilot project, which once it’s wrapped up, the provincial government will decide if it’s going to fund it further or make it permanent.