A hiker who got trapped overnight in steep and snowy drainage on Mount Seymour this weekend was long-lined to safety Sunday morning by North Shore Rescue after spending a night on the mountain.
The man in his 30s had gone hiking on Mount Seymour for the first time Saturday by himself, then got lost in a treacherous area of Shone Creek, said Mike Danks, North Shore Rescue team leader.
“The Shone Creek drainage is very steep,” said Danks. “Most people when they go into the Shone Creek drainage, they don’t come out alive.”
This time, the hiker was lucky.
North Shore Rescue got the call around 4:30 p.m. Saturday from the RCMP who had received a dropped 911 call from the hiker.
Before his cellphone signal died, the man managed to tell the dispatcher only that he was on Mount Seymour, lost near a creek.
“For us that’s a needle in a haystack,” said Danks.
Luckily “his phone had hit a tower in Surrey,” said Danks – indicating the hiker was on the east side of the mountain.
Also, “there’s still a considerable amount of snow on Seymour,” said Danks, allowing searchers to look for tracks, which they eventually saw heading in the direction of De Pencier Lake.
Two search teams headed in that direction around 9 p.m., but with fading light and thick cloud, visibility was limited, said Danks.
The next morning, the search resumed, with assistance from Lions Bay and Coquitlam SAR teams, plus two helicopters.
Soon the missing hiker was spotted, standing beside the creek and waving. Fortunately he appeared to be in good shape.
Because of the steep terrain, crews decided to use a long-line to pluck the hiker off the mountain.
Danks said the man had basically hunkered down overnight after he heard the search helicopter out looking for him.
Aside from a granola bar and water, the hiker – who was relatively new to the Lower Mainland - was unprepared, said Danks.
“He probably didn’t anticipate the snow,” he said. “You’d be surprised at how many people get turned around on Mount Seymour.”
The man also had not told anyone where he was going.
Danks said North Shore Rescue is preparing for the summer rescue calls to ramp up with the reopening of the Grouse Grind this week – especially with new restrictions on pre-booking the Skyride gondola down, due to COVID-19. Hikers who don’t pre-book will likely find themselves hiking back down the mountain on the BCMC Trail.
