District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services members pulled an injured cliff jumper from Lynn Canyon, Monday afternoon.
Just before 4 p.m., crews received a call about a 19-year-old visitor from Quebec who dislocated his shoulder when he hit the water below Twin Falls.
To safely get him out, the rescue team had to be lowered down by rope with a basket stretcher, splint the man’s arm and shoulder and then haul him back up to the trail so firefighters could carry him to a waiting ambulance.
Dislocated shoulders are a particularly common injury on Lynn Canyon, said Capt. Kit Little.
The department typically carries out about 25 rescues of cliff jumpers and swimmers in Lynn Canyon per year. Little said they will likely hit that number again this year.
“People are ignoring all the warning signs. Most of the people that we’re rescuing are not from the North Shore. They’re coming in with very, very little knowledge of the area and there are a tonne of inherent dangers. The river system changes all the time with fluctuating water,” Little said.
