A North Shore Rescue team used a helicopter long-line to pluck an injured hiker off the Howe Sound Crest Trail Sunday afternoon.
Rescuers were called out around 2 p.m. after a 22-year-old woman, who was hiking with a group of five people, caught her foot under a tree root and hyper-extended her knee on the way down from St. Mark’s Peak.
The resulting injury was painful enough that the woman couldn’t put any weight on that leg.
A first-response team of three rescuers walked in to meet the group, wrapped the injured woman’s knee and attempted to walk her out, acting as “human crutches,” said search manager Doug Pope. But it was very slow going, he added.
Luckily, the clouds that had been covering higher elevations cleared enough later in the afternoon for the team to send up a helicopter.
Rescuers then moved the injured woman to a spot on the trail where a hole in the tree canopy was big enough to attach her to a long line and pull her out with the helicopter team.
Pope said while the injured woman was a relatively experienced hiker, the group as a whole wasn’t well prepared.
“They were prepared for a nice sunny day if nothing went wrong type of hike,” he said, adding they had no first aid supplies and no extra clothes.
Pope said St. Mark’s Peak — roughly half way between the beginning of the trail at Cypress Bowl and Unnecessary Mountain — has recently become a popular destination for novice hikers.
“We had a lot of calls (there) earlier in the year,” he said.
The snow is now gone from the trail, but Pope said it still presents a degree of challenge.
“It’s still a pretty rugged backcountry trail.”
