Search and rescue members managed to save a man whose parachute caught on the side of the Stawamus Chief Thursday afternoon.

The accident left the man dangling from his parachute on a cliff face about halfway up the 702-metre mountain, a precarious position that he was stuck in for over three hours.

Fortunately, he wasn't injured, and Squamish Search and Rescue was able to communicate with him on his cellphone.

"He's extremely lucky," said Landon James of Squamish SAR. "His—whatever that was, a parachute or a paraglider—caught onto a piece of rock that's sticking out on the Chief which is, for the large part, a flat wall of rock, so a pretty lucky guy."

Members were dropped onto the Chief by helicopter around 1:30 p.m., and one rescuer managed to rappel down to the man's location and unhook his parachute using a long pole.

James said he was "awake and talking" to rescuers the whole time.

After the parachuter was secured, they were both lifted back up the mountain to safety.

"He went right into the care of the BC Ambulance Service which is our standard practice to get checked out in a better way than on the side of a hill," James said.

It's unclear what the man was doing before the accident. Squamish Search and Rescue members said they weren't sure whether he was paragliding or basejumping.

The incident forced officials to close the Sea to Sky Highway, but only for about half an hour.