Search and rescue crews spent several hours outdoors overnight to rescue an injured hiker who had fallen off a mountain on the North Shore.

The hiker was on Crown Mountain when he plummeted up to nine metres off a cliff Monday evening, according to North Shore Rescue.

Fortunately, another hiker noticed what happened and called for help.

"(The victim) was able to communicate still, but he had some injuries, possibly internal injuries, which we were concerned about," search manager Scott Merriman said.

Given those concerns, North Shore Rescue decided to call the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria for assistance from the Canadian Forces.

Two teams of search volunteers headed onto the mountain and reached the hiker at around 1:30 a.m.

They then helped move the patient to a helicopter that was dispatched from CFB Comox, which flew him to YVR airport so he could be taken to hospital by ambulance.

Merriman couldn't confirm whether the hiker was prepared for the outdoors, but said it appeared he was not equipped to call for help.

"We don't know how long he had been at the bottom of that cliff, so if he had a means to notify us earlier we could have got him out quite a bit earlier," Merriman said.