How technology is helping and hindering North Shore Rescue

Friday marks the first weekend of fall — and it’s going to be wet.

For the first time in a long time, consistent precipitation is in the forecast. And as the rainy season begins, it has volunteer members of North Shore Rescue (NSR) worried.

Search Manager Allan McMordie says last year crews responded to 140 total calls. Meanwhile, with three months left in the year, they’re already closing in quickly on that number, expecting to exceed it before the end of 2025.

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McMordie tells 1130NewsRadio that the number of calls has increased over the last decade, but thanks to technology, they’re able to tackle rescue operations differently.

Night-vision, combined with helicopter use and night-hoisting technology, has made that difference.

“Whereas before, if someone was injured in the backcountry — middle of the night — we would have had to carry them out, and that takes a lot of manpower, a lot of hours to get that person out,” McMordie explained.

“Now, we’re able to go in and hoist them out. It’s a trade-off: We’re doing a lot more calls, but the total number of hours the team is putting in is only going up a little bit. The calls are shorter because of technology.”

What’s not helping, McMordie says, is people’s reliance on their cellphones.

“The problem we encounter every time is they’re phoning 911 and they’re saying, ‘I have 20 per cent battery.’ They’re almost running out because they’ve used their phone for navigation, to take pictures, they’ve uploaded pictures to Instagram, they’re calling and texting people, maybe they’re using it as a music player — they’re drawing their batteries down and they don’t have a backup battery.”

“It’s a trade-off: We’re doing a lot more calls, but the total number of hours the team is putting in is only going up a little bit.”

Often, by the time they reach a stranded person, he says their phone is dead, and crews have to make voice contact to track them down in the dark.

“And now that it’s getting darker earlier in the woods, people are using their cellphones as their light,” said McMordie, who is pleading with people to take the correct tools to explore the backcountry.

“Have a headlamp, have another navigation device, they got to keep their phone warm, the battery dies a lot faster when it’s cold — keep your phone close to your body.”

Unreliable cell service in certain areas is another concern for McMordie.

“You have to leave a trip plan with somebody back in the city who knows where you’re going, when you’re expected back, and if you don’t get back, they phone 911.”

A recent example, he says, took place just last week.

“A hiker who got lost and injured just north of Mount Seymour. He was able to make a 911 call, but nobody knew he was up there. He had probably broken his ankle. He was from out of town. If he had not been able to get that call out, if he had been just a little bit further away, we may not have known a week later that he was there.”

Luckily, new technology could fix the problem.

McMordie says for the first time ever, NSR used a new device called LifeSeeker, which was bought through community donations.

“We used it to pinpoint a lost mountain biker in the Nanaimo area. LifeSeeker allows us to put this device on a helicopter or on a 4×4 vehicle, and it becomes a cell tower. We can fly this thing out into the area, and if we know enough about the phone that we’re looking for… we can locate them as long as the phone is on, as long as there is enough battery on that phone.”

The mountain biker, who had been stuck outside overnight, was quickly rescued as a result.

McMordie cautions that, regardless of all the advancements, if the weather doesn’t cooperate, NSR will continue to send in ground crews, which takes even longer to complete a rescue.