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A Vancouver-area skier had a lucky break Saturday night when he managed to get a phone call out while trapped in deep snow in the Mount Seymour backcountry.
The skier, a man in his 30s, called 911 around 8 p.m. on Saturday after losing a ski and becoming trapped in an area known as Suicide Gully.
The man, who had moved to the Lower Mainland from Oregon about six months ago, had headed to the First Pump on Mount Seymour but got off trail on the return trip and ended up in the gully, where a number of skiers and snowshoers have been lost before, said Peter Haigh, a search manager with North Shore Rescue. “It’s a common area where people get sucked into,” said Haigh.
“As soon as he started realizing he was in the wrong place, he should have gone back up. But he thought he could ski out the other side, which of course you can't.”
“He was very, very lucky to get a call out,” Haigh said, adding cellphone service often drops off sharply in the gully.
A team from North Shore Rescue was dispatched to the area with the help of an avalanche plan to map a safe route. Conditions were not great, said Haigh. “It was foggy and snowy.” They reached the lost skier around 11 p.m.
The man had no food, water or other emergency supplies with him, said Haigh.
Rescuers gave him snowshoes and an avalanche beacon and were able to walk the man out.
Another call for North Shore Rescue Friday night turned out to be a false alarm.
Haigh said two skiers on Grouse Mountain called 911 believing they were lost because they couldn’t see anyone else around them. “In fact, they weren’t lost. They were on a ski slope,” said Haigh.
Grouse Mountain ski patrol was sent to guide the skiers back.
