The other day I was watching some of the great YouTube videos on the Environment Canada channel when I came across this one, on a “microscale weather phenomenon” near Whistler (this one was produced for the 2010 Olympics). I had…
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We don’t need Heroes
It was with dismay that I read the Time Colonist editorial entitled “First Responders Need Leeway” today (July 28, editorial published July 19th). It appears that the perception that the Premier of Ontario stepped in to save the day in the…
Elliot Lake; the rescuers speak
Maclean’s magazine has an article this month on the rescuer’s point of view on the response to the mall roof collapse in Elliot Lake. As readers of this blog know, I was rather outspoken on the matter, saying that the…
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…
Death of a Volunteer
I heard about the death of a member of Nelson SAR late last night. News like this moves very quickly in the SAR community. Today they found her body, and members of her team took her home. I have no…
Treewell camera footage
I don’t usually “reblog” things, but this is something interesting and related to the posts I’ve written about NARSID, or Treewell incidents. A man on Mount Shasta Ski Park in California had a helmet camera running when he fell into…
Avalanche Accidents and Hazard rating
Every week the Canadian Avalanche Centre produces multiple avalanche bulletins for many different regions of British Columbia. In those bulletins, they rate the avalanche danger, defined as the likelihood, size and distribution of avalanches. This weekend there were several avalanche…
Backcountry Skier dies on Mount Seymour
Please see updates at the end of this article. A week from my last post on his pattern of accidents, and there’s another accident, this time fatal. Details are sketchy, but the media are reporting that the individual was snowshoeing…
Snowshoer rescued on Hollyburn Mountain
This previous week has seen warmer than usual weather with a lot of rain and fluctuating freeing temperatures bringing rain to the tops of the local mountains, and saturating the snow. Yesterday and today dawned cold and clear. Overnight sea-level…
Accidents in Incidents: A review of SAR-related injuries
Any reader of my blog knows I love numbers. Collecting information can tell you a lot of things; it can tell the shape of a problem, whether the problem is big, small or insignificant, and it can define problems that…
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