Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue has been busy lately with four calls over the past two weeks.
The most recent call for help came on Monday when a hiker in distress called for help near Panorama Ridge on Golden Ears Mountain.
Brent Boulet, team president, said they were called out at about 6 p.m. on June 9, after the lone hiker who was suffering from leg cramps, managed to get a phone call out to 9-1-1.
The team sent the young man a text message providing a link for him to click on, which sends the location of the person on GPS.
First they flew over the area to confirm the location and make sure the hiker was still there and they could actually find him.
"We did a flight over the location we were given and found someone in that location waving their arms," said Boulet.
From there they looked for areas they could potentially land that were close to the hiker. However, there was nowhere close by, so they made the decision to request some help from Coquitlam Search and Rescue to do a hoist rescue into the helicopter.
A team of three was flown into a location above where the hiker was on Panorama Ridge, where it was more open, and the team had to hike down to the man which took them about 20 to 30 minutes.
They did an assessment and found out he did take a bit of a fall, said Boulet, but he just had some minor scrapes.
The team gave him water and electrolytes. And while the other team mobilized in the helicopter, the ground crew attempted to walk the subject to where they were dropped off.
"But it was a very slow go," said Boulet, noting they did get the man part way up to a little more open of an area, but not where they could land a helicopter.
So a Talon helicopter was used for a hoist rescue where two search and rescue members were lowered to the hiker, they put the hiker in a harness, and then the three were hoisted back up to the helicopter.
The hiker was flown to the team's West Canyon Command, where they were assessed again and deemed in good condition other than the leg cramps and minor scratches.
"They did not need to go to the hospital," said Boulet, noting the entire rescue took about four hours.
People need to be aware that it is still winter conditions higher up in the mountains.
"We did pick him up in snow where he had slipped and fell," said Boulet of the hiker. "In this case he didn't have what I would consider adequate footwear or equipment for travelling in those conditions."
Although he was well prepared to spend the night, but didn't have the experience or equipment to travel in the alpine winter conditions, and he wasn't experienced for the area, said Boulet.
"People should be doing a lot of research on the hike that they do plan and make sure they are physically able to undertake (the hike)," he added, noting Golden Ears is not an easy hike, it's long and steep and you need plenty of water.
You should also hike with a partner, advised Boulet. Especially one that is experienced in more challenging hikes.
There were three other rescues for the rescue team.
On May 29, at around 3:30 p.m. they were called to Pitt Lake where a youth had an allergic reaction while canoeing.
Boulet said the team reached the boy by boat and found him to be in stable condition. They brought the boy to shore, he was handed over to BC EHS.
On June 3 they were called for help two times – one right after another.
At around 1 p.m. they were called to the search and rescue shelter in Golden Ears and could not hike down because they were also not prepared with proper footwear and equipment for hiking in the alpine snow conditions. The pair had to be flown out.
Then at around 3 p.m., when the team was just finishing up with that call, they were called to Blue Mountain along the McNutt Trail where a lone dirt biker had crashed and broke both of their wrists. They managed to be able to get a call out for help, said Boulet, adding the team evacuated the dirt biker and finished up that call in about two hours.
Boulet is advising the public to be careful when enjoying the outdoors as more nice weather is in the forecast.
