North Shore Rescue saves hiker from Mount Fromme Saturday

North Shore Rescue (NSR) says it rescued a hiker who was stuck on a cliff on the backside of Mount Fromme Saturday afternoon.

The service was called out shortly after 3 p.m. and the rescue was completed by 6:30 p.m., search manager Dave Barnett told CityNews.

“We safely extracted this fellow by helicopter,” Barnett said. “He was stuck on the side of a cliff. He couldn’t go up and he couldn’t go down. So we knew it was going to be a helicopter extraction just based on the location.”

He said they weren’t able to make the rescue right away because of cloud cover, but they got a break about half an hour later.

“The fellow was a little bit shaken up, but otherwise unharmed and safe,” he said.

Barnett says this call was a reminder of what needs to be done to stay safe while hiking.

“Start early, leave a trip plan, research the area you’re going to, and be properly equipped,” he said. “But specifically to this area, we discourage people from following street maps for navigation. There are errors in this area from one of them; it shows that what looks like a trail in this very dangerous terrain. It’s not a trail at all. We’ve been working with Google Maps to have that line erased. “

The most recent rescue from the area was in September, when a hiker called 911 after getting stuck on a cliff, telling operators “he was hanging on and wasn’t sure how long he could hold on.” This hiker was later rescued successfully. In May 2021, another hiker had gotten lost while in the same area, and was found dead.

Mount Fromme is one of the North Shore Mountains, located east of Grouse Mountain and overlooking Burrard Inlet.

CityNews has reached out to North Shore Rescue for more information and an update.

This is a developing story.

With files from Charlie Carey.