Lost mother, son hikers found ‘mildly hypothermic’ on Grouse: NSR

A mother and son had to be rescued Monday evening after getting lost on a hike in North Vancouver.

North Shore Rescue (NSR) search manager, Stan Sovdat says they were called out around 6 p.m. near Grouse Mountain.

He tells CityNews that the duo did not go on the hike with enough equipment.

“From the beginning, it was indicated that they had virtually nothing with them other than water, and obviously they had a cell phone,” he said.

Sovdat says the two got lost after changing their plans.

“They didn’t follow their plan…The plan was to do a hike and find a specific site where a plane had crashed, and then to go back,” he said.

“But they decided to do something they had never done before and take a different trail down.”

The search manager says the area has a bit of a labyrinth of trails that go in all sorts of directions.

“Many of them seem to dead end, and that’s when they really got lost,” he said.

He says the duo ended up at a river and decided they needed to cross it to save their lives.

The duo was dressed in T-shirts and shorts and were hypothermic when crews found them.

“They were mildly hypothermic and verging on being more severely hypothermic,” Sovdat said.

“They (crews) gave them warming jackets, put pads on their legs to warm them, and gave them food and fluids to help them generate body heat through metabolism.”

Sovdat says crews needed a backup team to assist with the situation. Two teams were sent out with extra ropes to assist — they set up a 40-meter handling, where a rope had to be secured, and individuals had to climb up on a slope with the support of the ropes.

The rescue manager says lessons can be learnt from the mother-son duo.

“Bringing extra gear, extra clothing, food, water, if you’re doing a hike, especially in an area you really don’t know,” he said.

“Be prepared, and follow your plan.”

-With files from David Nadalini.