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from www.news1130.com
Jeff has spent 15 years exploring the back country and says this is the first time he has ever had to be rescued. The man and a woman spent last night camping on Seymour and on the way back, the man got swept away by a snowslide on a steep slope between the second and third peak. The pair made a snow cave and waited until help arrived.
Searchers say the two had a cell phone and were able to call for aid. They heavy snow made progress slow for rescue crews, but they worked hard and were able to reach the couple and get them safely off the mountain.
Jeff says his gear is still there and when it settles he plans to go back to get it. North Shore Rescue says although the pair were well prepared they should not have gone up due to the poor weather conditions.
and from www.theProvince.com :
Couple rescued from treacherous gully -- New Year's Eve sleep-out goes terribly wrong due to avalanche
Frank Luba, with files from David Carrigg / The Province / Tuesday, January 02, 2007
A couple were pulled out of a treacherous gully in Mount Seymour Park last night after a New Year's Eve sleep-out went terribly wrong.
"We saved their asses," said rescue leader Tim Jones. "They were extremely lucky. Thank God they got on the cellphone.
"Basically, they shouldn't have been in that area at all."
He said that because of the rain and wind on the snow, worsening avalanche conditions throughout the day, rescuers would not have been able to reach the pair for several days had they not reached them when they did.
The hikers, a 47-year-old Vancouver man who identified himself only as Jeff, and the woman, who is in her 30s, hiked up to Seymour's second peak to see in the new year.
But when they left their campsite yesterday morning in a howling windstorm -- so strong it broke one of their tent poles -- the man was caught in an avalanche and swept away.
"The male was swept down the slope," said Don Jardine of North Shore Search and Rescue. "He extracted himself and wisely decided not to try it again."
The man was wearing skis, while the woman had snowshoes. Both are experienced in the outdoors and carried avalanche transceivers and shovels.
The woman climbed down the slope to join her partner and they took shelter in a snow cave because of high winds, fog, rain and snow.
They called police at about noon on a cellphone and the rescue effort began.
The weather made search conditions difficult and a helicopter search was impossible. At one point winds reached 80 km/h.
About four hours after the phone call the man and the woman were found in the gully between the second and third peaks of Mount Seymour, a three-kilometre hike from Seymour's commercial ski operation. "The [search] team finally got visual and voice contact with the campers," Jardine said.
Getting to the pair was difficult because their rescuers feared getting caught in an avalanche themselves.
Two rescuers, Dave Sulina and Rich Garratt, the most experienced in avalanche conditions, rappelled down on ropes to meet the couple.
At the bottom, the couple attached themselves to the rope and rescuers pulled them up the steep wall using a technique called an assisted belay -- basically, climbing up with the assistance of the rope to which they were harnessed.
After 20 minutes, at about 6 p.m., the pair reached the top of the ridge and began to hike, with their rescuers, to the top of the Brockton chair on Mount Seymour.
From the top of the Brockton chair they were then taken by snowmobile to the medical room at the parking lot. They were cold and wet but otherwise unharmed.
One of the dozen rescuers had to be treated for dehydration.
"We checked the conditions before we left," said Jeff, who has 15 years' of backcountry experience. He said the forecast was for "four centimetres."
But, he said, "the conditions changed dramatically overnight."
He admitted to being scared as he was swept away by the small avalanche.
He said when he reached the North Shore Search and Rescue team on his cellphone: "They told us to hunker down."
They built a snow cave and had sleeping mats, sleeping bags and fuel for a stove.
But they needed the rescue team to get out. "The guys were terrific, fantastic," said Jeff.
He said the close call will not stop him from going into the backcountry, particularly because he left his gear behind.
"When it settles down, I'll go back and get it. It might be the summer, it might be February."
Rescue officials had earlier predicted the pair would have to spend the night on the mountain because of the bad weather.
Jardine said it is a tradition among some Lower Mainland residents to go to the peaks of local ski hills on New Year's Eve to celebrate.
He said the couple may have been deceived by rainfall that was falling when they left, not realizing it was snowing heavily higher up.
RCMP Cpl. Cam Kowalski, who has hiked in the area, said: "It's fairly treacherous terrain up there."
fluba@png.canwest.com |
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