Skier stuck overnight in B.C.'s Suicide Gully hikes out with help from local search and rescue group
Local search and rescue teams performed what some would call a Christmas miracle, saving a skier who ended up stranded on a North Vancouver mountain.
North Shore Rescue search manager Scott Merriman told CTV News Saturday that his teams were able to bring the man to safety after he spent Friday night trapped inside Suicide Gully on Mount Seymour.
“He was skiing with his family who were snowshoeing just up to Brockton Point, they all turned around and on the way down I guess he must have lost his way and ended up down into Suicide Gully,” said Merriman.
The family contacted Mt. Seymour’s ski patrol team when the man did not pass them on the way down.
NSR members were brought in shortly after to help find the man, but bad weather conditions made their rescue mission a little tricky.
”Because of the avalanche conditions we weren’t actually able to get down into Suicide Gully yesterday,” explained Merriman.
However, NSR members stayed on higher ground Friday evening managing to make voice contact with the man around 10 p.m.
“Even though we were quite far away, the field team was able to talk to him pretty well and he actually held up his cellphone and they could see him down in Suicide Gulley,” said Merriman.
Bad weather Friday night and Saturday morning didn’t allow for the search and rescue team to fly the man out, instead they opted to go by foot to bring him back to safety on Saturday morning.
“A team went in this morning via ground since the weather is still isn’t very good for flying,” Merriman explained. “They went in on skis and snowshoes and found him.”
Apart from being cold through the night, Merriman said the man is currently “in good shape” and hiked himself out along with the help of the NSR team on Saturday.
No one else was injured in the incident.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.