Grouse Mountain gondola malfunction behind weekend rescue calls

We now know more about the cause of a series of calls for rescue in North Vancouver on Saturday.

North Shore Rescue (NSR) Search Manager Dave Barnett tells 1130 NewsRadio that the activity started when Grouse Mountain’s Skyride gondola malfunctioned, and some chose to take the BC MC Trail down instead.

“There were a lot of people at the top, and they decided not to wait, and decided to walk down. And of course, the trail is very steep and treacherous, and people that weren’t prepared to hike probably weren’t equipped very well, and it was getting dark, so it’s extremely, you know, dangerous to descend,” said Barnett.

The trail, just east of the notorious Grouse Grind, is also quite steep. Vancouvertrails.com says “most people take the Grouse Gondola back downhill as the steep, rocky slopes can be dangerous to descend.”

A helicopter rescue technician and ER physician were hoisted into of the area by Talon Helicopters. NSR, along with the District Fire and the Metro Ranger, provided care and winched the person out before transferring them to a rescue base at Cap Gate near Cleveland Dam.

A second call came in just as the first one was ending, this time for a hiker in distress on a lower section of the same trail.

North Vancouver District Fire was able to assist the hiker, as they were already making their way down the trail from the initial call.

Shortly after the rescues were completed, a third call came in for an elderly patient with dementia who had walked away in West Vancouver. Thankfully, the patient was found while NSR was preparing to attend.

In a statement to 1130 NewsRadio, The Grouse Mountain Resort says its Skyride gondola stalled due to a fault in the operating system around 3 p.m.

“At 3:20pm, we were able to switch to auxiliary power to get both tram cars back in-station and allow the guests on-board to disembark,” the resort said.

Barnett says he would advise people to listen to Grouse staff in the future.

“Take their advice and stay and wait for the gondola to resume. People may be in a hurry, but it’s not worth risking a broken leg or worse, descending when you’re not prepared, so people just shouldn’t do it.”

—With files from Srushti Gangdev and Michelle Meiklejohn