A man is lucky to be alive after falling 200 metres on Crown Mountain Sunday.
Four well-equipped and experienced climbers were descending a snowfield on Crown around 2:30 p.m. when one of the hikers lost his footing, according to search manager Douglas Pope.
"One of the climbers slipped on the slope and had a severe fall - about 200 metres - down the snow gully and into a creek. He severely injured his leg by breaking both his femur and both bones in his lower leg," Pope said.
The slope the man fell down was about 30 degrees, Pope added.
Rescuing the 40-year-old Lower Mainland man proved very difficult as bad weather almost prevented rescuers from being able to reach the man by helicopter.
"We got about a 10-minute window where the clouds lifted a little bit and we were able to long-line the injured subject out and off the mountain," Pope said.
Once transferred to a B.C. Ambulance chopper, the hiker was taken to Vancouver General Hospital.
"He was very severely injured. This was a significant call. We were lucky to get a 10-minute break in the weather or things would have gotten a lot more serious_We were looking at a significant rescue that would have involved over 50 people and likely a 24-hour duration to extricate this person and the outcome might not have been so good."
Kudos are owed to the Talon Helicopters pilot who flew the chopper in such difficult conditions, as well as the volunteers and emergency workers who assisted, Pope said.
"We had really good co-operation. It was a very involved rescue," he said.
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