North Shore hikers rescued in Mosquito Creek: ‘They couldn’t feel their toes’

Three hikers were rescued on the North Shore after they got lost in the Mosquito Creek area as cold and darkness started to settle in Saturday.

North Shore Rescue says its members were alerted about the situation on the side of Grouse Mountain around 3:30 p.m.

Search manager Stan Sovdat tells CityNews the three people “knew they were near the Dreamweaver Trail but they were lost, they were off the trail.”

“They called the RCMP for help because they couldn’t find the trail and they were starting to get very cold. They described their feet as becoming numb and they couldn’t feel their toes and stuff like that,” Sovdat recalled.

He says it took search and rescue teams a little bit of time to get through due to snow on the road. After relocating to another entry area, a team of four was sent in to find the group.

“It took them about 40 minutes to walk up the trails through the snow and get onto the location of the subjects. I did talk to the subjects by phone and, of course, they sounded healthy but they confirmed they were lost, they confirmed they were off the trail, they thought they might know where the trail was … but they couldn’t find it. Of course, they confirmed they were darn cold,” Sovdat said.

“They said they were in steep terrain in deep snow. We were able to get on scene. We had a trauma doctor – one of our doctors – assess them in good health but cold. Not severely or moderately hypothermic, just mildly hypothermic.”

The hikers had a bit of food with them and the clothes on their backs, Sovdat adds. They were given hats, jackets, heat vests, better footwear, food, and water before they were walked back out to their vehicle.

Related articles: 

• B.C. rescue highlights need for more provincial support: NSR

• North Shore Rescue gets approval to use night-vision technology for searches by air

All three people were men in their 20s – one of them from Metro Vancouver, the other from Vancouver Island, and the third from Alberta.

“Their plan was to head up from Prospect Road and go look at some old-growth forests. But there was much more snow than they thought. Admittedly, the trails get pretty crazy up there – there’s a lot of mountain bike trails and there’s a lot of hiking trails,” Sovdat explained.

He says there have also been some instances of missing trail markers.

“It’s been going on for years where we, North Shore Rescue, will get a rescue in an area for a person who’s lost and we go up and we mark the trail with trail markers and, within a month or year, somebody comes along and pulls the nails … and they pull all the markers off, just adding to the major confusion that’s going on up there,” he said.

With temperatures rising and weather conditions becoming more spring like, North Shore Rescue is urging people to be prepared when they head out to the trails.