What goes up must come down. But sometimes that’s easier said than done, as three separate hiking groups discovered Saturday when they became stranded on an icy section of trail on Eagle Bluffs above Horseshoe Bay.
North Shore Rescue was called out Saturday after West Vancouver police received a call from a father who was hiking the Baden Powell Trail from Horseshoe Bay with his four-year-old daughter and got stranded on a steep and slippery section of trail, unable to go up or down.
“It’s a popular hike,” said North Shore Rescue team leader Doug Pope of the trail, which ascends about 900 metres to a rocky bluff overlooking Howe Sound. But the trail is also very steep. “It’s climbing with your hands and feet in some places, grabbing roots,” he said.
At this time of year, the trail also gets harder to follow once it hits the snow line at about 700 metres elevation, said Pope and was “basically a sheet of ice.”
Although the father had sturdy boots on, he didn’t feel safe moving up or down.
North Shore Rescue sent a five-person team up, driving part of the way on a service access road.
When they got close to the father and daughter, they got word that he had heard other people in a similar predicament calling for help on the trail above him. As the team approached, they encountered a third person – a man wearing runners – who had also encountered the slippery section.
The team split into two sections and one group went up to find two women who had run into the ice farther up the trail.
“They were in city boots,” said Pope, which were “very inadequate for the conditions. They could have easily hurt themselves.”
Members of the rescue team used their ice axes to cut steps into the icy trail. Meanwhile the second group of rescuers gave micro-spikes to the father to place on his boots while one of the other team members in crampons carried the man’s daughter down the trail in a backpack. The third man was helped down the trail unassisted.
In total, the rescue call took about six hours.
Pope said the three-for-one call is a good reminder to be aware of where the snow line is in the local mountains – which is about half way down right now. “If you want to go higher, you have to be well prepared.”
