Two hikers ignoring closed signs rescued off Grouse Grind during busy long weekend for searchers

NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It has already been a dangerous and busy long weekend for rescue crews on the North Shore, with three calls on Sunday alone.

The last rescue of the day came in after dark and involved two hikers who strayed off the Grouse Grind, which is closed for safety during the winter.

The pair found themselves in steep, icy terrain without any gar to escape. North Shore Rescue (NSR) says the team was called out around 7 p.m. and it took several hours to get the hikers out after dark.

Cold and clinging to trees for dear life: North Shore Rescue plucked two hikers off of Grouse Mountain after they strayed away from the *closed trail they were also unequipped to be on. It was the third call for searchers on Sunday alone. More on @NEWS1130

— Ash Kelly she/her (settler) (@AshDKelly) February 15, 2021

Scott Merriman, search manager with NSR, says the hikers weren’t prepared for the “treacherous” conditions and they didn’t have a plan.

“The conditions were not good at all. The ground is frozen and then we had a layer of snow on top of it. It was almost a slip and slide out there,” he says.

One hiker was keeping himself from slipping by pushing his feet against a tree while the other was holding onto tree roots to stop from sliding further, Merriman says.

He adds the two were in a precarious spot, above icy cliffs, risking serious injury if they slipped any further.

Merriman says there is also a “spooky” snowpack to consider, and he’s urging caution for anyone looking to get outdoors.

“Really the mindset for people has to be stepping back and really choosing conservative terrain, sticking to that simple terrain if they are going out,” he says.

Earlier in the day, NSR was dispatched to Ladysmith for a mutual aid call where it used its new helicopter hoist for the first time instead of a fixed longline. A woman, who was also suffering from a medical condition, had spent the night outside in freezing conditions before being rescued by helicopter and taken to the Nanaimo hospital by B.C Ambulance.

Teams didn’t have to be sent out for two hikers who were lost in the Mt. Seymour conservation reserve. The pair were able to make it out on their own.

Over the weekend, two people lost their lives in avalanches in the Sea to Sky backcountry. One person died of their injuries after four skiers were swept up in an avalanche in Whistler on Friday. A day later, a 45-year-old man died in an avalanche in the Brandywine Bowl near Whistler.

-with files from Lisa Steacy and Bailey Nicholson