Shift in B.C.’s weather, North Shore Rescue issues backcountry warning

The Lower Mainland’s latest storm, our third in just over a week, included a fresh layer of snow at higher elevations but it comes with some concerns.

Thursday’s storm, which has dragged into Friday, brought with it a blast of winter and snow for some areas including Westwood Plateau, SFU, and the North Shore Mountains.

North Shore Rescue Team Leader Mike Danks says they’re gearing up for what’s expected to be another busy season, but he stresses, if you don’t know what you’re doing, stay off the mountains or go with someone who is experienced.

“There are lots of hiking clubs you can join that will give you that information. We’re always available if people are out there and they need help, we encourage you to call us before you get yourself into a dangerous situation because maybe we can talk you out of that situation.”

He says one problem is people will often experience the rain at lower levels and think it’s the same above — it’s not. It’s likely snowing, much colder, and this kind of weather also serves as a reminder to stay away from fast-moving creeks on some trails.

“You need to have the appropriate clothing with you. You need to have the appropriate footwear and we always recommend you carry micro-spikes year-round. But when we do get into snow conditions, it’s a good thing to prompt everyone about being aware that down the road when we have a larger snowpack, you need to be aware of avalanche conditions.”

We’re not there yet as Danks says we don’t have enough snow on the North Shore mountains to raise any concerns about a slide, but you still need to be prepared if you’re venturing out.

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“There is a large majority of people that are recreating, that are well-prepared, that are really in-tune with mountain conditions, but we do get a lot of novices, especially in the Vancouver area because of our closeness to the downtown core and the accessibility that we have,” he explained. “If you see someone out there who’s not prepared, talk to them. See if you can educate them, sometimes it doesn’t go over well but at least you tried. There are a lot of people naive to the dangers of the North Shore Mountains.”

Despite having access to night-vision and night-hoisting capabilities, Danks says it doesn’t mean they can always get to you safely.

“We can only do [night-hoisting] when the weather is in favour of us flying. There are times we cannot get up into the mountains because of the cloud or because of the conditions.

“That’s why we encourage people to always be prepared to stay overnight and that doesn’t require a ton of gear. There is so much lightweight, really good gear out there. We’ll do our best, obviously, to respond but you can’t count on us 100 per cent every single time… but you need to have some independence as well.”

The good news is so far this year, the group is not on track to match or exceed last year’s record-breaking year for calls-out. Right now, they’re at roughly 140 calls, but last year he says that “exceeded 250.”

Falling back this weekend

The weather isn’t the only concern for NSR right now.

We fall back by an hour at 2 a.m. this Sunday, which means fewer hours of daylight.

Danks says this is a problem every year because people think they can do their usual hike, forget it gets dark at 4:45 p.m. and then they get stuck.

“That’s one that catches people all the time, and make sure you have ample daylight time to do that hike and if you don’t, make sure you have a headlamp and spare batteries with you.”

He says one way to sidestep potentially getting lost in the dark is to do a shorter hike.

“Absolutely and again, we have such a broad spectrum of different hiking abilities on the North Shore that there’s always going to be those people that are very prepared but then again we have the other end that are novices, and for those novices, stick to the frontcountry, do the smaller hikes, make sure you have lots of daylight and be aware of the areas that are closed.”

Find a list of the top essentials you need for a hike here.