The first call came in around 7 p.m. last night (March 10) from North Vancouver RCMP, who said they’d received a dropped 911 call from a man and a woman, both in their 30s, who were stuck in an area called Suicide Gully near Mount Seymour.
The duo, who were both described as experienced and well-prepared backcountry skiers, had intended to go for a ski on Tim Jones Peak, but on the way down they were drawn into the Suicide Gully run, which eventually led them to steeper and more hostile terrain.
“We’ve seen this very frequently actually over the last couple of weeks. We’ve had a bunch of calls up there,” said Mike Danks, North Shore Rescue team leader. “People get drawn down into Suicide Gully because it’s nice skiing. But it’s avalanche terrain, it’s not controlled, and it basically funnels you down into Suicide Creek. That’s exactly what happened to these two. … It’s a closed area. It’s not an area you want to be recreating in.”
The duo stayed put because they were no longer comfortable navigating the area, and that’s when they called 911.
With access to night-vision goggles and a Talon helicopter, North Shore Rescue deployed from its Bone Creek SAR station in North Vancouver.
“As soon as we lifted from Bone Creek, we could see their lights in Suicide Creek. It’s a quick flight into that area, and we could see where they were,” said Danks.
The helicopter hovered over the lost skiers and dropped them an emergency kit with warm clothes and a radio before flying to their Mount Seymour helipad. There, a crew was sent down the steep terrain to retrieve the subjects.
While all this happening, North Shore Rescue was in communication with Whistler Search and Rescue Society, as the crew there was contending with two backcountry skiers caught in a large avalanche on Fissile Mountain near Whistler.
“Based on the temperatures in Whistler, the winds, and where they were, they determined that at the very least if we could just get an air drop kit into them to provide them with some blankets and some warming devices, that would be really helpful,” said Danks.
While one North Shore Rescue crew hiked down Suicide Gully, the other crew flew to Whistler to assist in the avalanche callout.
After arriving on scene 26 minutes later, they determined it was safe to extract the pair, a man and a woman in their 30s, who were transported to the Whistler heliport.
The team then turned around and touched down on the Mount Seymour helipad just as the first North Shore Rescue crew had ascended with the Suicide Gully skiers. Both rescues were wrapped up by 1:30 a.m. this morning.
According to Whistler SAR, the two skiers at Fissile Mountain experience a size 3 avalanche which trapped them on the fragile bed surface of the slide. The concern was that the remaining snowpack would continue to step down around the pair on the very steep, exposed southwest slope.
Danks commended Whistler SAR for helping the skiers in the Fissile avalanche navigate to a safer area away from the slide and directing them on how to build a snow cave to seek shelter while waiting for rescue.
“I think it really highlights how the SAR teams in B.C. work together,” said Danks.
