Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue carried an injured hiker through rugged terrain to safety on Monday, March 20 in Golden Ears Provincial Park.
The call came in at approximately 1:30 p.m. that a middle-aged woman had fallen and injured both her knee and ankle. She had been descending when a misstep on a log resulted in a fall. She couldn’t make it down the steep forest slope without assistance.
The hiker was with two other people on the East Canyon–Lower Falls connector trail.
Once on scene with the subject, search team members stabilized the leg and planned an extrication route down to the Lower Falls Trail.
“She was in quite a bit of pain,” said team member Al Leonard, but said she handled the situation of being strapped to a stretcher and carried through the forest like “a trooper.”
“It can be an unnerving experience,” he said. “It was tough terrain.”
Given the steep incline of the path they opted for a stretcher carry with a rope safety, making the rescue a particularly labour-intensive process. Approximately 12 team members “leapfrogged” down the trail, not walking with the stretcher, but having members continuously move in front of it, and passing the injured woman to them, to slowly make progress.
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Once the woman was on the flat Lower Falls path, the team convoyed her with a UTV and an Alouette Parks staff pickup to the parking lot where an ambulance waited.
Leonard said the hikers were smart to not try and get the injured woman out themselves.
“It’s a really rough trail. Accidents happen,” he said. “They did the right thing by calling for help.”
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