A case study of a recent rescue in Southwest BC My SAR Team just completed a rescue of three stranded hikers in the DeBeck Creek area north of Coquitlam, on the west side of Pitt Lake. If this sounds familiar…
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Personal Locator Beacons from the Rescuer’s Perspective
Tagged with: backcountry, beacon, case study, helicopters, HETS, management, map, personal locator beacon, PLB, rescue, safety, Tyler Wright, weather
Posted in Blog Entry, Essay
Posted in Blog Entry, Essay
HETS Mountain Rescue in Yoho National Park
News tonight of a rescue in Yoho National Park. Parks Canada pioneered the rescue technique SAR people in BC know variously as HETS (Human External Transport System), or “Class ‘D’” operations (referring to the Aviation regulations that govern people being…
Finding Someone from a Helicopter
The call At 4am June 13th, 2007 my pager went off, waking me from a very deep sleep. The pager goes off all the time, but this early in the morning it’s almost always a bad thing. People tend to…
Popularity of snowshoeing
In my article on snowshoe accidents, I noted that snowshoeing seemed to be growing in popularity, but could not find an industry reference on the numbers involved. Well, I found one that tracks numbers for the American market. The Outdoor…
What the heck is “Out of Bounds”
I can’t help but notice the wording of a recent article by CTV news on a rescue of two hikers in Lynn Valley Regional Park. The summary states (emphasis mine) Two men in their 20s were rescued by North Shore…
Summer snow conditions
When I wrote my article on a pattern of accidents I had observed in winter sports lovers, I talked about the snow conditions that contribute to a slip and fall accident. That, combined with easy access to the alpine, a…
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